A One In A Million Chance To Meet You
by Ayosamay
Summary: AU! Her mother dead from an accident involving a drunk driver, Dawn is forced to live with her cousin, Gary Oak, in a boarding house their Grandfather currently owns. Dawn has to deal with the fact that the crash didn't cause her mother's death, but the airbag did. Even worse, when she is told that her mother had only a one in a million chance of dying. (Ikarishipping)
1. Chapter 1

A new town. A new school. Hopefully it is her last high school, so she could graduate with a diploma atleast. Her mother used to travel the regions, competing in contests as a top coordinator. That is, until the accident; a freak accident. A 1 in a million chance of dying, yet she was the 0.00001%. She was the world to Dawn and now Dawn feels like she is under a cloudy sky. They were travelling to Kanto, to visit her cousin, Gary and grandfather, Professor Oak. But, before they could even get to the airport, a drunk driver slammed into the back of the vehicle. That didn't kill her, but the faulty airbag did. A 1 in 1500 chance to have a defected car. A 1 in 17000 chance to have a defected airbag. A 1 in a million chance to die from said faulty airbag. Dawn's life feels like chances and she receives the worst of them. She has to move to Kanto, to live with her Grandfather and cousin in Pallet town. But, even though she appears to have recovered, she has far from achieved it.

* * *

 _Flashback_

 _"Mum, can you roll down the windows for me? It's too hot in here," Dawn asks._

 _"Sure, honey. Who are you texting?"_

 _As if to prove her point, Dawn's phone pings at that moment. She looks at her messages,_

 _ **Dawn, how are you? I know you haven't been gone long. But, we're all going to miss you in Twinleaf town! - Kenny**_

 _Enclosed is an attachment of a class photo. Dawn stood in the middle of the first row out of the two. Kenny, being one of the tallest, was standing in the middle of the second row. She smiles, she is going to miss this place._

 _"Oh, it's only Kenny." Dawn replies._

 _"You mean my almost son in law."_

 _"Eww mum, me and Kenny firstly, haven't dated and secondly, I see him more as a brother than a possible love interest."_

 _Her mum smirks, "As I said, a son in law."_

 _I groan at her joke, shifting to stare out the window as I message Kenny back._

 _She hears a loud squeal of a tire. That's when she sees the white van heading straight for the back of her mum's car._

 _"Mum!" She yells, but by the time her mum hears her, the collision had already occurred._

 _An airbag appears, but deflates almost instantly. Thankfully, Dawn's seatbelt catches her and she manages to get her hands onto the dashboard, stopping her head from colliding with the object._

 _"Mum?"_

 _But as she turns her head, she sees the blood. Blood gushes down from her mother's head, both thick and blood red. Dawn knows the injury was fatal, she knows. Yet, she still shakes her mum, hoping for her to wake up. But she doesn't and Dawn knows she never will. It is stupid really, she knows her mother lays dead. But, she keeps saying,_

 _"Mum, please wake up."_

 _She keeps saying that as they pull her from the car. She keeps saying that as she watches them take away the body. She keeps saying that throughout the funeral. But, she has lost her._

* * *

The plane journey is torturous. Dawn could feel people giving her pitiful looks, as they stared at her tearful face. Don't stare at me, she thinks. She feels like they knew what happened. Of course, most of them knew what had happened to the top coordinator, but not that she is her daughter. She tries to stifle a sob and wipes the tears from her cloudy face. She feels lost without her mother. She wasn't at fault, but she knows she should have tried harder to save her mum when she saw the car coming. People all around her told her it wasn't her fault. By her friends, by her family, by strangers. But, deep down, she knows she is as guilty as the drunk driver. She hadn't taken action. She had watched like a bystander, as her mother's soul was torn from her body. And that made her feel just as guilty.

Dawn sighs, unconsciously messing with a strand of her beautiful, blue hair. Over the summer, she had grown it to the middle of her back. She had wanted to cut it after the accident, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She stands in front of her cousin's house, which he is using as a boarding house. It is a fairly big, suburban house in the beautiful town of Pallet. Full of lush forests and numinous lakes. Putting on a fake smile, she walks towards the sprawling house. She lightly knocks the door and it opens immediately, as if the person had just been waiting for her. A tall, heartbreakingly handsome guy with brown hair and eyes stands in front of her. She hasn't seen him in years, but she recognises him instantly.

"Gary!"

"Dawn, long time no see!" Gary tells her, a large, genuine grin on his face.

Dawn steps into the house, noticing the many shoes and coats by the door. She asks,

"So, you turned the house Grandfather gave you into a boarding house?"

"Well, yeah, it is fully mine when I turn 18, so only 2 years to go," Gary smiles sadly.

Dawn and Gary are the same age, Gary being 11 months and 5 days older, a fact that he teases Dawn on relentlessly. His birthday is on September 1st, whilst hers is on August 6th. She takes off her shoes and coat, leaving them with the others at the door. The house is really big, as Grandfather Oak is rich and only provides the best for his two Grandchildren. Dawn hasn't been here since she was young. Gary then explains,

"So, you have your own en-suite. There are eight people boarding now you're here, but you'll meet them later. I'm surprised Grandfather even gave me a house after I drove into that lamp post last year."

Dawn laughs, "Yeah, you aren't the smartest in the bunch."

"Hey!" Gary jokes, pretending to be insulted, when he really wasn't.

A question pops into Dawn's head and she asks,

"So are you charging them boarding?"

"Nope, Grandfather is paying the water and electric bill. We just take turns buying the groceries. It's my turn this week, so expect loads of chocolate and popcorn!"

"Yay!" Dawn cheers, when suddenly she remembers,

"Oh, how's leaf? I haven't seen her...or you, for that matter, since we were 8. Wow, 8 years ago, damn we're old!"

"She's fine; she's actually boarding here at the moment because her mother lives too far away from the academy. Dawn had all but forgotten the academy. The prestigious Pallet Academy for those gifted few. It specialised in maths, science, english, engineering and computing, but had a colourful array of other subjects. Dawn herself would be studying computing, engineering, music and maths. Gym is compulsory. She'd also been shoved into an academic club and a sports club without her consent. But, she liked sports, so she hasn't complained. Dawn follows Gary into the house, most likely showing Dawn to her room. How Grandfather has allowed Gary to live in an eight bedroom house, she had no idea. Without thinking, she calmly asks,

"You haven't texted me in two years! So, how's the player life going for you?"

Gary blushes, "It's not like that...I am just looking for the right one, you know? I've been on countless dates, but none of them had a spark. I've never had a girlfriend. Pretty pathetic, huh? I could even count the number of girls I've kissed on one hand. One of them being my mother!"

Dawn giggles then becomes serious,

"Blue, I won't tell you that you'll find the right one, because that would annoy the hell out of me."

"I missed you, Pink. You always understand," Gary smiles, pulling Dawn into a tight hug.

"Aww, I missed you, Gary," Dawn smiles back.

"Finally got a girlfriend, Gary?" A voice from down the hall calls.

Dawn turns around and is greeted with a green haired, green eyed guy. Not as tall as Gary, but still half a head taller than her. Like Gary, he is also good looking.

"Drew, she's my cousin!" Gary yells.

"Cousins can get married in Hoenn," Drew grins, before handing Dawn a pink camellia.

She takes it, is this a token of friendship? Drew starts walking down the hallway and Gary yells after him,

"Eww!"

I laugh at Gary's reaction. I know how he feels, Gary is more like a brother to me. Dawn notices, out of the corner of her eye, a flash of purple. But when she turns around, there's no one there. She blinks in surprise, but continues to follow Gary. They reach a room with a sign on, reading,

"Pink/ Dawn."

"Aww, thanks Gary. You never forgot the nickname?"

"As if, you remembered mine!"

Dawn laughs, waving goodbye to Gary as she steps into the room.

* * *

Inside, the room is decorated entirely in white and pink. Dawn sighs, Gary remembers what her favourite colour was when she was eight. She still likes pink, but not to the same degree as when she was younger. But, she still smiles, thinking,

"Gary always outdoes himself."

She lays her bag onto the bed. There is a massive double bed, a desk, a walk-in closet, a laptop perched on a dresser and a door leading to a unnecessarily large bathroom. The room is empty, but not for long. Adding her things to the room, the room begins to fill out. She perches her pokemon plushies on top of the dresser; hangs her mass amount of clothes in the walk-in closet; adding picture frames onto the desk. Finally, she sets up the new laptop, making a mental note to thank Gary. This would make her studying and homework so much easier. Getting changed into a pretty, pink summer dress, she begins to head out the door. That is, until she spots a note on the desk that she previously hadn't seen. It reads,

"Your board-mates:

Gary (me :P aka Blue) - the best and most handsome person in the house!

You (aka Pink) - No description needed

May - Nice and friendly, an extrovert who is always fighting with Drew

Drew - A green haired flirt, who is arrogant (though, who am I to talk?) and is always fighting with May.

Misty - Fiery temper and seems to have family issues, but loyal

Leaf (aka Green) - As quiet as always

Paul - Kind of a jerk at times, but seems to get nicer the more you know him

Ash - Loud, obnoxious and the king of video games

(Damn! Now the number of boys and girls is equal! .)

Dawn finishes reading. Now she just needs to put the names to faces. But she is so bad at remembering people's names in the first place, which is why the nicknames were made. Tying her mid-back length hair into a high ponytail, she heads down to the living room or atleast to find Gary. She falls into a person in front of her.

"Sorry!" She yelps.

"It's fine. Watch where you are going!" The purple haired guy yells, who is just as handsome as her cousin.

It takes her ten minutes to find the kitchen and she helps herself to some Coca cola and a galaxy bar when she gets there. She then manages to find the living room, finding civilization at last. Five people are on the couches, watching a game of football. She plops down onto an empty loveseat with her snacks and five pairs of eyes turn to look at hers. She tries to eat and watch the game without feeling self conscious, but fails. After a few minutes of silence, one of them speaks,

"Hi, my name's May. Sorry to be so blunt, but you're really beautiful and you're Gary's cousin? Damn genetics!"

She is pretty with dark brown hair and eyes. A red bandanna sits proudly on her head, as if daring someone to challenge her.

"Yeah, my name's Dawn. Nice to meet you." Dawn says, blushing furiously.

Drew speaks up, "My name's Drew, we met earlier. This is Misty, Ash and Leaf. April already introduced herself."

"My name is May, Drew!"

He hands her a red rose that appeared from nowhere and he just grins at her. May looks furious and turns her head away. I almost sigh, it's so obvious that he likes her.

Leaf smiles, "You don't need to introduce me, I've known Dawn since she was 5. I haven't seen her in eight years though."

Ash, another tall guy with black hair and dark brown eyes, excitedly joins in the conversation,

"You're childhood friends?"

"Yeah..." Leaf replies cautiously.

"So that means you've known Gary since you were five too!"

Dawn giggles and corrects Ash,

"Actually, Leaf has known Gary since they were 1."

The other four's eyes open wide in surprise. That's when Gary chooses to walk through the living room door. He plops down in between May and Leaf on the big sofa. This causes May to be squished up against Drew, who I can see grinning, and Leaf to be squashed against the edge of the couch and Gary. He puts a hand on her knee, but she slaps it off. By the way Leaf is acting, Gary must of been 'trying' to flirt with her for years. Misty, a girl with bright orange hair, is sitting on the other loveseat with Ash. She quickly turns the channel from the finished football (or soccer if you are American) game. Hearthome heatrans win 7-3 to Snowpoint snorunts. The channel goes to a maths show. Everyone becomes interested in solving the equations before the people on screen.

"Hey, the answer is 3140!."

"Ash, they can't hear you!" Misty yells.

"I know, I know," Ash mumbles, nursing his head.

That's when I speak up,

"The answer isn't 3140, it's 3343 You only divided by 230."

Six pairs of eyes turn to look at me.

May asks, "You can do big multiplication in your head? Even the mathematician on the screen is using paper. I mean, even after you multiple 12470 by 63 and divide by 235 to four significant figures, it is a bit much."

"Well, I am studying maths." Dawn explains quietly.

Ash yells sarcastically,

"Oh no! We have a mathematician in our mists. Wait...I take maths as well."

With that, we all break down into fits of laughter.

* * *

Dawns snuggles into the loveseat, watching a horror movie. Drew, Misty and Leaf sit on the big sofa and Gary sits, alone, on the other loveseat. He'd already asked Leaf if she wanted to sit with him, but of course, she had said no. Violent scenes flash across the screen and she can hear Leaf's soft whimper as the haunting music becomes louder. The people on the massive flatscreen suddenly hear footsteps behind them and turn around. A monstrous, hideous beast stands infront of them. Dawn hears the startled yells of Leaf, Misty, Gary and Drew. Instead of yelling like the rest of them, she starts laughing uncontrollably. They turn to stare at her like she is some monster.

"What's the matter, Pink?" Gary calls, looking genuinely concerned.

Dawn keeps laughing, "It's so hilarious. It's not even scary at all! The acting and CGI is ridiculous!"

Misty raises her eyebrow,

"You do know this was rated scariest movie of the year, right?"

Dawn shakes her head. She loves horror movies, she has become all but immune to the jumpscares by now. The movie ends quickly, earning a cheer from Dawn, then she asks,

"Can I put a real horror movie on?"

Drew backs out the door slowly, followed by Leaf. Dawn just smiles, why are they so scared? Halfway thorough the film, both Gary and Misty run out of the room, screaming. Oh well, she thinks. She is all alone now, she sighs. Then she feels a cold hand touch her shoulder. She yells and tries to pull away, ending up on the floor in the process. She hears a low, cold laugh. She looks up and sees another tall guy with vibrant purple hair and onyx eyes from the light of the movie. Why are the guys all so tall? Isn't that the one she fell into earlier? So this is Paul?

"Paul?" She guesses.

"Guess I'm more infamous than I give myself credit for." Paul smirks.

Dawn just rolls her eyes and sits on the loveseat again. The purple haired guy drops onto the loveseat next to her. Paul reaches for some of her popcorn, but she manages to slap away his hand before he can grab any. Paul then looks at her inquisitively,

"So a girl who can laugh at the scariest horror movies is scared of me grabbing her shoulder?"

Dawn blushes and mumbles,

"It was dark okay, your hand was cold and I couldn't see you."

"Maybe you're not as tough as you try to make yourself out to be."

Paul quickly grabs some popcorn and leaves the room, without a goodbye. What a jerk! Dawn yells in her head. She glares after him, not catching his smirk.


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn wakes up to the sounds of a voice. Possibly May's. She listens more carefully.

"Damnit Drew! Where did you put my hairbrush?"

Yep, definitely May's voice. Dawn pulls herself out of bed and quickly gets dressed into the academy's uniform. She pulls up the skirt's length and shortens her tie to give her sparkling uniform more personality. The uniform consists of a tiered black, mid-thigh length skirt (more like a quarter-thigh length after Dawn fixed it up a bit), a white shirt, a black blazer, white knee high and a brilliant blue tie. Dawn smiles genuinely at her reflection, the uniform is like something out of a fairytale.

"Hey Dawn, can I borrow a hairbrush?"

"Sure," Dawn tells May, who has just entered the room.

May looks surprised when she sees Dawn. She smiles friendlily,

"Wow. The other girls are going to hound you, you know?"

"Why?" Dawn asks, inspecting herself. Had she forgot something?

"Because all the guys are only going to have one girl on their minds."

Dawn blushes, getting what May is implying, "Definitely not."

"You know what, get ready for school and I'll put some makeup on you and help you with your hair. "

"You're pretty, May." Dawn smiles.

May grins, "Really? Then let me dress up and we can storm the school together!"

* * *

Half an hour later, Dawn and May are ready. They are wearing minimal makeup, just enough to bring attention to their good features. May has changed her uniform to match Dawn's (by shortening the skirt and tie), adding a blue bandanna. Dawn realises that the bandanna is her signature item of clothing. Dawn sighs, she didn't really have one of those. Dawn's long hair is slightly curled and frames her face beautifully. They arrive into the kitchen for breakfast and the other six members of the boarding house just stare as they enter. Leaf loses her speech and all she can say is,

"Wow."

Everyone but Ash is staring at her and May. His eyes are trained onto Misty, who is making toast by the toaster. Dawn smile at him and he realises, too late, what she just saw. This causes him to look at the floor, a slight blus colouring his cheeks, and for Misty to ask if something is wrong. Dawn cheerfully sits between May and Gary. Being the amazing cousin he was, Gary has made Dawn some pancakes covered in melted chocolate. She glomps him and then digs into the delicious food. Throughout the entire ordeal, she could feel a cold set of onyx eyes trained on her intently. But she chooses to ignore the jerk. The pancakes disappear far too soon and then it is time to go to the academy. Only Drew, Ash, Misty, Gary and Paul have driver's licenses and cars: Drew has a two seater silver sports car; Ash has a two seater dark green sports car. Gary has a white four seater sports car; Misty has a blue five seater family car; and Paul has a black two seater truck . All in all, four very impressive cars. Of course, Ash, Drew and Gary are from rich families, so they have sports cars. Being the good little cousin Dawn is, she rides shotgun in Gary's car. May is literally dragged into Drew's car and Dawn is in hysterics. Leaf, closer to Misty than anyone else, gets a lift with her. Leaf may be Dawn and Gary's childhood friend, but that doesn't mean she can't have favourites. Gary drives ridiculously fast, but he knows where all the speed cameras are, so he never gets a ticket. Drew and Ash are hot on his tail. The jerk's car is several cars back, driving at a more reasonable speed. Misty's car isn't even in view, but she and Leaf won't be late; they left with plenty of time to spare.

* * *

Dawn's hair, clothes and makeup stay perfect, surprisingly, despite the fast speed of the car. As Gary opens the car door for her like a gentleman, she gets out like how celebrities do. Her presence doesn't go unnoticed by the students. They turn and stare, especially when they see her chatting to Gary and when they don't recognise her. May and Drew arrive seconds later, Drew opening the car door for her and helping her out, much to her displeasure.

"I could get out myself, Drew!"

"Just accept it. Ladies in distress are my speciality, April," Drew smiles, handing her a perfect, red rose. A little too perfect for a meaningless gift, Dawn observes.

"Damnit Drew!"

Dawn smiles, May is a little oblivious to the situation. The four of them walk towards the school building. Dawn is starting in the second week back from the holidays, so her arrival is going to be more noticed than normal. She sighs, she'll be behind in all her classes. Not that she had studied those subjects specifically at her old schools. Though, like her last schools, she feels confidently that she will pass maths. She steps into the school, waving to Gary, May and Drew, before heading towards the school office, having asked for directions a few seconds earlier. That's when a group of girls stand in front of my way.

"My names Ursula, this is Brianna and this is Rebecca (S1 ep29 'The punchy Pokemon). Who you are?" Ursula asks rudely.

Rebecca cuts in, "And what is your relationship with Gary?"

"Oh, my name's Dawn Berlitz, I'm Gary's cousin. Why?"

A look of relief appears on the three girls faces. Brianna smiles,

"Oh, no reason."

Dawn walks past them, but Brianna tries to cut her off. Dawn roughly trips Brianna's arm, but not hard enough to cause a bruise. Putting a threatening tone in her voice, Dawn says,

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I've studied martial arts since I was 3."

Brianna quickly pulls back and scurries away. Dawn smiles to herself and whispers,

"And the mice scatter."

* * *

"Hello, my name's Dawn Berlitz. It's my first day at school today."

"Oh, Dawn. Pleasure to meet you. My name's Sarah, I'm work the school office if you need me. Here's your timestable, some books and a map. Good luck." Sarah tells her, handing her a bulky map, a timestable and three large and heavy books for some of her classes. Somehow they manage to fit into her pastel yellow bag and she studies the map carefully. Her first class is computing and Dawn can't help but smile. She wonders who will be in her class as she heads towards her classroom in the impressive and sprawling Academy. It's like she is some kind of movie, as the people in the hallways part to let her walk past, staring at her intensely. She tries to shake the feeling of unease and puts on a slight smile. Why is everyone moving? She thinks curiously. She quickly reaches her class, managing to make it just before the second bell. The class isn't full yet, as there is two minutes until the late bell. But, even still, the people in the room seem to be staring at her. The teacher hasn't arrived, so she just stares at her classmates. Watching them chatting, laughing and smiling. The computers are all turned on, sat on the login screen, eagerly waiting for usernames and passwords. Of course, Dawn didn't need any of those to access them. The teacher and some stragglers enter the room just as the warning bell goes. The teacher looks around 30, with a friendly smile, blonde hair and bright blue eyes that seem to sparkle when they move. It's easy to see that some girls would like him, but Dawn thinks dating a teacher or someone that much older than you is wrong. The girls who actually would even date a 30 year old teacher would most likely be livid at the wedding band sat proudly on his ring finger. Dawn approaches him and he smiles at her,

"You must be Dawn, my name's Mr. Hendrick, but everyone calls me Gerald. Welcome to computing, how about you sit on the computer at the far end there?"

He points to a computer and Dawn almost groans. He had to pick the seat right next to the jerk. She tries to smile at Gerald and takes the seat at the far end anyway.

"Oh, Dawn." Gerald adds, handing her two slips of paper, "One of them's your username and password and the other is for the club I host. Only a few people are invited, so don't pass up the opportunity."

She opens the club slip to reveal,

"Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, after school until 5 pm. Room 23."

If Dawn remembered, her sports club, which Gary told her was track, was on Tuesdays and Fridays until 5 pm. She'll never go home on time at this rate. Especially, when Saturday morning is the time her Grandfather enrolled her in martial arts training at the local dojo. She plops herself onto the swivel chair, adding two spins in for good measure, before quickly typing in her username and password. In her old school, they'd had a speed typing contest and Dawn had won hands down. Okay, she mumbles to herself, what does she do now?

"Okay class, today, we're going to try something a little different. We're going to practise some basic forms of hacking. Of course, this has no link to any websites and we are not responsible if you become a world genius hacker; it makes more sense to me for you to learn codes by breaking them as well." Gerald tells them.

Most of the class nod in understanding. They are shown a website, which is a hacking teaching one, where you set the difficulty and hack. Of course, it isn't real hacking, because the website is made as a 'game', kind of like a flash game in a way. The difficulty goes from 1-100. Not knowing the exact scale, Dawn picks 20, hoping the website isn't too difficult. But, of course, it's too easy for her. Her hands fly over the keyboard, typing in multiple codes in the time it takes the beginners to do one on the easiest setting. The codes are easily readable, as if Dawn was born able to read and decipher them. Getting bored at the easiness, Dawn immediately sets it to the highest setting. She decides that even if she ultimately fails, it would be a laugh. The difficulty being this high meant she'd have to expect counter measures and even a full on attack. She smiles to herself, this is going to be fun. Three. Two. One. She presses begin and her hands fly once more. She is so absorbed, that she doesn't notice the entire class turn to the sound of her furiously tapping keys at a blinding speed. She doesn't notice them crowd around her, stunned by her accuracy. She hadn't made a mistake yet. But if you did make a mistake on a difficult system like this, then they'd have you. It only takes her two minutes to break it, having fought off two full attacks, narrowly dodging several triggered backdoors and defeating countless lines of code. Damn, this website is amazingly realistic...not that Dawn had done this in real life or anything.

"Done," she smiles as the code is replaced with a global leaderboard, her website username, Ghost, the only name present.

She notices the rest of the class taking their seats and feels surprised that she didn't notice them stood behind her earlier. Paul watches her, slightly in awe, even though he wouldn't admit it. He is a decent hacker himself, but anything above the difficulty of 67 on the learning website and he just wasn't fast enough and lacked the skills for it. He knew that Dawn could see him watching, but he didn't really care what 'Ghost' thought of him. Dawn wants to punch the jerk in the face so he'd stop staring at her, but she resists the urge. She can't see Gerald, but he has a large smile on his face. After all, it's not everyday that a computing genius is placed in your class. But, even still, he feels unnerved, knowing that she'd beat him any day.

* * *

She checks her timestable for the next lesson. Maths, then break. Then engineering before lunch. The afternoon lessons consisted of music and gym/sports. Maths was easy to find, due to the pretty and conveniently placed signs. The classroom was massive, like all the others. This class was advanced too, so only 12 people in a classroom meant for 30 (even though it could have fit way more) made it seem odd. Dawn approaches the teacher's desk and is met with a stern, stone faced teacher. The gargoyle's mouth twitches as she stares at Dawn and her adjusted uniform. She expresses her own thoughts loudly, so the entire class could hear her,

"Why do they always send the attention-seeking beauty wannabes to the advanced class? I always have to move them down because they're too stupid!"

Dawn is furious, she isn't attention seeking and she doesn't go out of her way to be pretty. And, she is smart. Very smart, actually. She already hates this teacher with pure hatred. But, shaking it off. She introduces herself,

"Hi, my name's Dawn. Nice to meet you and you are?"

She can hear some other students in the background.

"Now she's in for it. She's going to get non-stop questions!"

"Hey, ain't she the girl Barry called dibs on?"

Wait...what? Dawn is so distracted that when she hears the teacher's reply, she goes with gut instinct.

The teacher replies,

"What's 563 multiplied by 325?"

"182,975?" She replies without thinking.

The teacher quickly pulls out a calculator and her eyes bulge out of their sockets. She grumbles,

"Fine you can stay. But don't think I'll take it easy on you. The name's Miss. Potter. Sit there next to Marina."

She sits down, hearing more gossip fly around the room.

"She's Gary's cousin! I wish I was in that family, they have the best looking genetics around!"

"Did you hear what happened in computing?"

Dawn sighs and continues solving the equations and exam style questions on the sheet. Why is everyhting based on rumours and lies? Marina is nice and tries to make conversation, but Dawn is too busy trying to complete the work in the shortest time possible to notice. Marina just sighs, knowing she isn't purposefully ignoring her, and gets back to the dull, pointless work. Several minutes later, Dawn hands in a sheet of completed exam style questions. Miss. Potter pulls out the markscheme and quickly marks through it. She writes 40/40 on the top of the sheet, handing it back with another sheet. Well, sheet is an understatement. It is an entire booklet filled with maths questions. Sighing, she gets back to work. That lesson is fairly boring, Dawn thinks as she turns in her booklet and leaves the classroom for break. She sees May walk past on her way to an invisible destination.

"May!" Dawn calls cheerfully.

"Oh, hi Dawn. How's your morning going?" May smiles.

Dawn grimaces and tells her about the events of this morning, as May seems to guide her to her desired location. They arrive at a beautiful grass courtyard and under the sakura tree in the middle of the area of grass, sits some of her acquaintances and her cousin. May drags her to sit there and Dawn gives in, laying against the massive tree, her head pressed against the living colossal.

"Hey Pink! How's it going?" Gary yells at me, grinning like an idiot.

I place a smile on my face, "It was good, my teachers have been nice so far." She is almost flawless at lying, having concealed secrets since she was born. Yet, everyone but the jerk seems to believe her. He raises his eyebrow and she sits with her back to him. What is his problem anyway? She never wants to lie, as it makes her feel deceitful, but she made a habit of it and it's difficult to stop. She concealed secrets that could mean life or death, but she never crumbled, even when it meant another slap. Even when it meant another beating. Even when it meant suffering at the hands of those who hate her being different. Dawn sighs, shaking the underlying thought from her mind and tries to join into the conversation.

"Hey, April, do we have science next?"

"Damnit Drew. Firstly, my name is May! Secondly, yes, we do."

Dawn giggles with everyone else. But that makes Dawn wonder why Drew tries to make May angry. Her mind running around in circles, she gives up. Ring. The first bell for third lesson goes. Dawn checks her timestable.

"Engineering, room 46. Where's that?" She mumbles to herself.

"I have that class, just follow me Ghost."

"Ghost, really Paul?" Dawn yells at him as they set off in the direction of class.

He just smirks at her, is she really this dumb? He liked annoying her, just as much as she hated being annoyed. She didn't know the significance of the name she had unconsciously chosen as a username for the website. But she would and Paul knew her look would be priceless.


	3. Chapter 3

The journey to get up to their engineering classroom is a fairly large distance from the courtyard. The school campus size may have been the reason the time to get to class from the first bell is five minutes before the late bell. If you got lost, the chances of getting to class on time diminishes altogether. Just before she can get into the building, two girls stand in front of her: Brianna and Ursula. She grits her teeth, haven't they learnt their lessons? Well, it's their problem if they want to play with fire.

"Hello there, little Miss. Perfect."

Dawn grits her teeth even more, she isn't perfect. Not even close. She's the last person she'd think would be perfect. She had more flaws than a klefki. She wants to punch them for even suggesting it, but she pulls her hands behind her back. Putting on her most perfect smile,

"Hi, Brianna and Ursula! You look amazing today. Sorry, but I have to get to class. We can talk later!"

"You can count on it," Brianna snarls.

Ursula sends Dawn a disgusted look, what a goody two shoes!

Dawn saunters past them, glad to have avoided pointless conflict. She manages to catch up with the jerk and they reach the class as the second bell rings. Why is she even following this jerk anyway? The classroom is small, with six desks set up in one corner. Many stations and machinery are set up around the room, with a row of computers on the right wall. Only six people will be in this class, so hopefully it isn't anymore people she can't deal with. Like the three ugly sister, for example. Not that they are ugly...they just lack a good attitude. Misty walks into the room and notices Dawn standing next to Paul, awkwardly. Dawn desperately tried to stop looking at him, but she fails. Miserably.

"Hey Dawn. Hey Paul, did you do your homework? The designing a building one?"

He nods, a sign that he doesn't want to engage in small talk. Misty moves onto Dawn. She is so cheerful and pretty; Dawn can see why Ash would like her. She seems like the only person who could put up with his cheerfulness and weird attitude. No offence, Ash, she adds in her head. They sit at the desk, feeling oddly squished into the corner. Dawn feels even more squished, due to Paul sitting next to her on the desk, as that is the only spare seat. She can even smell him from this distance, a nice blend of forest and chocolate. How he smelled like chocolate she had no idea, but she liked the smell. Wait...what? She shakes her head again, causing Paul to look at her like she is crazy. She hides her head as she blushes, now he thinks she is a psycho. Why does she care what he thinks? Thankfully the teacher enters at that moment.

"Okay. So, you must be Dawn. My names Mr. Clark. This term we're doing a project. I was just going to give out the pair project today. Thankfully, you've made the class an even number."

They are all given a project sheet. Design a house that is earthquake proof and make a working model of it.

"Remember, you need to research everything and write an essay or booklet on what you did and why. Include the items you use for the model and the prices. For a challenge, you can optionally have a budget of £500. Most of you won't spend that much anyway. Using things from your house is allowed, but list that as well, as pre-owned. Okay, for groups: Misty, you can go with Brock. Iris, you can go with N. Paul, you can go with Dawn."

Dawn yells in her head and puts her head in her hands. Yell is an understatement, she thinks as she nurses the new headache that ricochets through her almost hollow skull. Paul just looks at her with an amused expression on his face, this just made it easier for him to annoy her. The projects are always so similar with all this explaining. If she wanted to do meaningless research, she would have studied science. Smirking, Paul pulls out a piece of paper and starts designing an aerial view of the house's first floor. Dawn breaks out of her cocoon and tries to help,

"Shouldn't the beam go there?"

"No, it would make the room look all wrong," Paul tells her.

"But the force of the upstairs and the roof would apply too much pressure to the middle of the beam. Wouldn't it snap?" Dawn asks, waiting for his reaction. After all, she knows she is right.

"Damn. Fine Ghost. We'll do it your way. Where should the beam goes and where will all the pressure go?"

Across the room, Mr. Clark smiles at Dawn and Paul, who are hard at work. He is expecting great things from this pair. He knows that like the house, they have their faults, but their trust in each other to build the house will make the project more memorable. The project is used for two things. One, to help determine grades. Two, to help improve relationships in his class. Negative feelings affect the work they produce.

* * *

Dawn collapses by the sakura tree, holding her lunch she bought from the cafeteria. Her lunch consists of a massive container of pasta and a large bottle of water. The queue took forever, maybe she should bring lunch tomorrow? But she'd have to make *cough* force *cough* Gary go shopping for more food first.

"Erm...Blue?"

"Yeah, Pink," he answers, staring at her as he eats his pizza.

"Can you go shopping tonight for some lunch stuff? You have to go after your academic club! Please Gary, I'll owe you one!"

Gary sighs but nods, going back to flirting with Leaf. But, this just earns him the cold shoulder. Drew is running around the tree with May's salad, with an angry beedrill ( actually May) chasing him relentlessly. Misty and Ash are discussing the project Misty received in engineering. It appears like she is asking him to help her with a few calculations. Dawn could do the calculations more accurately and quickly than Ash could, but she doesn't mention this. She isn't going to sink a ship, atleast not this one.

 _"Hey honey?" Her mum calls._

 _"What mum? I'm busy texting Zoey."_

 _"Never mess with a shipping, unless you want the guy yourself." Her wise mum tells her._

 _But the young and naive Dawn just responds,_

 _"Why?"_

 _"Because the fangirls just aren't worth it. So, unless you wanna deal with them, pick a shipping less guy. Or atleast, become so strong the fangirls are afraid to fight you for him. Oh, by the way, I asked your martial arts coach for another lesson on Thursday night."_

 _"You could have just told me, mum. Didn't need the entire speech," Dawn grins cheekily._

"Dawn?"

"Hmm, what is it?" Dawn replies, being pulled from her thoughts.

"I think Barry wants to talk to you." May responds quietly.

Everyone tenses and turns to look at the good-looking blond hair boy, who is beckoning Dawn. Sighing, Dawn tries to get up, but fails miserably. She falls over her own feet and lands on Paul. He stands up and lifts her to her feet, without any effort on her part. Is he really that strong? Dawn walks nervously towards the blond hair guy, what does this guy want? Wasn't he the one she heard had called 'dibs' on her? She didn't like the dibs game; it is childish to claim someone you don't know. Barry grins as she stands in front of him. He begins to speak and she instantly knows what his game is.

"Hi Dawn, my name's Barry, the captain of the basketball team. I mean in my second year too! Anyway, babe, do you want to hang out with me tonight?"

Yeah. He is so trying to get into her pants. Dawn is going to have none of that. He may be good-looking, but his personality is a buzz-kill. At the top of her voice, she exclaims,

"What the hell? I do not want to go out with you! I don't even know you!"

She turns, slapping Barry across the face before heading back to the group. That was a bit overkill...oh well. He needs to get the message. And he got it clear alright. Barry clutches his cheek, a deep red, painful mark appearing underneath it. Everyone is watching her and some people are sending Barry repulsed looks. Gary, Drew and Misty are in shock, while May and Ash are grinning wildly. Paul is being Paul and is giving his signature smirk. But they all know, Barry isn't going to back down that easily.

* * *

Gary calls, "Who's on Dawn duty for music?"

"Sorry, I have art."

"Maths."

"Maths too."

I have music!" Leaf exclaims.

"I have music too."

They all turn to Paul and start laughing. They hadn't known he'd been studying music, apart from Leaf, and it just seems bizarre coming from him. He just growls and heads off to class, with Dawn tagging along to his annoyance. Leaf is distracted by a question Gary asks to follow. Due to Gary, Dawn is to be watched at all times to ensure Barry doesn't pull anything on her. Of course, gym would be a lesson she'd have to face him. But thankfully with her acquaintances, who are beginning to feel more like friends, she might be able to survive unscathed. She almost gets dragged by an oncoming stampede, but Paul firmly grabs her wrist and pulls her.

"For someone does martial arts, you'd think you'd be stronger."

"H-How do you know I do martial arts? Were you following me?" Dawn stutters.

The only people she had told was Brianna, Ursula and Rebecca to frighten them. Was he following her then? Paul had been following her, but he was never going to admit that. He knew something was going to happen and he'd never live with himself if his friend's cousin got hurt. Or, that is what he is convincing himself. The rest of the walk to the class is silent. Dawn luckily gets a seat at the back of the music room, on the opposite side of the room from 'stalker' the jerk.

"My name's Jade. I'm your music teacher. Do you play a musical instrument, want to learn one or are you a singer yourself?" Jade, the music teacher, asks with a bored expression on her face.

"I can play the violin and I am an okay singer." Dawn answers nervously. The 'perfect' girl rumour had passed throughout the school and she felt so much pressure to live up to expectations, subconsciously.

"You either can sing or you can't. Care to give us a demonstration? Need any more instruments for a composition?"

Dawn goes to her bag and pulls out multiple scores of a song on different instruments. She answers,

"I need someone on guitar and piano."

"Ooh, an original composition. Leaf, Paul, you ready? I expect you to play flawlessly."

Leaf grabs one of the guitars, tuning it up in seconds and scanning over the music score once. Paul sits at the grand piano, flipping through the score and stretching. Are these how professional work? Nervous, Dawn grabs one of the violins, tuning it up perfectly. A trick to make her less nervous is to forget the audience. She faces away from the watching and searching eyes, placing the music score on the rickety music stand. Leaf and Paul look so relaxed. Trying to relax, Dawn begins playing and singing,

"Scared and alone,

police on the other side of the phone.

Yelling downstairs,

quarrels over their love affairs.

Little girl's locked in her room,

so the fighting can resume.

Bruises are blossoming,

the neighbours start gossiping.

She broken,

her thoughts and feeling unspoken.

She not mending,

And her life is slowly ending.

No one seems to care,

their lives too busy with these love affair.

Too afraid to fight for his national flag,

yet he uses the mother as a punching bag.

Alcohol bottles thrown over the house,

In the sea of endless pain, the girl stands like a lighthouse.

She manages to fight the pain,

helpless as her parents go insane.

The man can't make her feel any more hurt,

but he turned her into a introvert.

She was his only painkiller.

Now he's turned her into a cold-hearted killer."

* * *

The song she'd written was strange, but she felt a connection to it. It fits the musical score nicely and she feels like it went well. She could tell the teacher and class were interested and equally disturbed by the lyrics. But what could she have written a song about? Love? Don't make her laugh. She is far from perfect, but she wears it as a crown, not a cloak. She returns to her seat, when the keyboards are brought out, to everyone's joy. Thankfully having one to herself, she plugs in the headphones, determined to write another song. But the noise deems that impossible. The class is over quickly, most of the class having spent forty minutes messing around on the keyboards, pressing random keys and playing 'music'. She follows Leaf and Paul to the changing rooms. Leaf and her enter the crowded girl's changing rooms. They are massive, like every other room in the sprawling academy. They are heavily perfumed, with lockers and clothes everyone, decorating the once dull room. Changing into the school sport kit, she pulls her hair up into a messy ponytail, using a pastel pink bow. The sports kit is a white tank top, black shorts, black or white knee high socks and trainers. Dawn puts on her pastel pink trainers, specifically made for running, and walks into the gym ahead of May, Misty and Leaf. Brianna, Jessica and Ursula will be in this class, but they can only bother her if she lets them. Gary, Drew, Paul and Ash are already dressed and are waiting in a group. She sneaks up behind Gary and hugs him from behind. Gary looks at her and groans,

"If you're not trying to make Barry notice you even more, try to look less cute next time."

"Okay, Blue!" Dawn smiles, not weirded out by the fact Gary called her cute. The other three boys are exchanging weird expressions. Dawn knows that Gary only has eyes for one girl, even though he hasn't realised it yet. Speak of the devil. Leaf shyly walks out of the changing room, followed by the more confident Misty and May. Dawn could feel Ash, Drew and Gary shift slightly when they walk towards them, as if trying to make more of an impression. Dawn would laugh, but she knows that they would kill her if she said anything. This is what happens when boys are cowards about love, she sighs.

Mr. Monsoon speaks, "Okay. We're playing volleyball today. Six verus six. There's twenty four of you in this group, so it shouldn't be too hard. First group: Let's have Gary, Leaf, Brianna, Marina, Brock and er... Cilan?. Second group: erm...Drew, May, Misty, Ash...Hilda and N. Third group: Barry, Iris, Ursula, Ethan, Serena and Calem. Fourth group: Paul, Rebecca, Lyra, Dawn, Silver and Wally. Okay, group 1 v. 2 and group 3 v. 4, let's go!"

Lyra stands as setter, nervous as she rivals Ethan, who is the setter for the other team. Dawn plays libero. The others make up the defence and offence. Due to only six players, the libero only rotate in the three back positions as it is impractical for them to be up front. Calem is the libero for the other team and looks confidently at Dawn. She grits her teeth, why is she being underestimated? Barry serves the first shot to a difficult location, right before the line on the left hand side. The volleyball is moving so quickly, it looks like it will make it in. But, before it can reach the ground, Dawn is there and it flies into the air smoothly. Both teams stare in shock and surprise. Who knew Dawn could move so fast? Barry begins to curse, but stops himself and smiles at her. She flips him the birdie, making sure the teacher isn't looking, and watches the play. Lyra jumps and does a first tempo pass to Paul, who easily scores. The blockers have nothing on his power or finesse in the air. It is their turn to serve now. Rebecca gingerly grabs the ball and tries to get it over the net, but to no avail. Dawn can't help but notice that Rebecca is trying to catch the eye of Gary. She might want to keep her eye on this slithery snake, because Gary is very gullible and she's already picked out his wife...but he doesn't know that yet. The other team rotate and it is Serena's time to serve. Wally looks at them,

"Watch out, she has a wicked serve. She gets service aces fifty percent of the time!"

Dawn just smiles, she enjoys a challenge.

"Then let her bring it on!" Dawn exclaims, boosting the morale of her team drastically.

The serve moves faster than any she has ever seen and she slides on the floor, her outstretched hand bringing the ball up. Causing Serena's team and her team to look at her in shock. Silver, Wally and Paul move forward in synch. Two blockers block Paul, the most threatening and one blocks Silver. Lyra makes a quick decision and passes to Wally, who spikes. Unfortunately, Calem saves it. Maybe he wasn't bragging earlier. The volleyball goes up and Ethan uses a dump shot, which is the setter dropping it on the otherside of the court (It is usually used after a feint or as a surprise attack). Dawn somehow manages to reach it and the volleyball keeps in play. Dawn's team is leading 24-20. Only one more point and they win. Barry serves again. Each time he serves, he gets faster. Wally receives it and the volleyball goes up once more. Lyra missteps and misses the ball. Dawn jumps from behind the back line and sets it to Paul, who wins them the final point. The other game had finished a while ago, group 2 winning 25-3. Mostly due to N's float serves and May and Drew's unbeatable combos. Drew is an amazing setter, while May is a spiker, with good air time. Trying to beat her in the air is impossible, her hands would move so fast that she could feint and completely change the direction of her hit halfway through the spike. When they weren't fighting, you could see the chemistry between those two, but that rarely happens.

"Drew! What are you doing?" May yells, when Drew pats her on the head as if she is a lillipup.

When he is confronted, he just puts a perfect rose in May's hands and walks off to the changing rooms.

"Drew! Get back here!"

Well, more like runs now. They sprint off like a herd of Tauros and Dawn can't help but giggle.

* * *

Dawn steps out of the changing room, having left after all the other girls.

"Hello Dawn." Barry grins.

"Leave me alone, Barry." She warns him, starting to walk off.

Barry roughly pushes her into some lockers and traps her with his arms and body. He whispers tauntingly,

"Who said you were going anywhere?"

She struggles when Barry's face moves closer to her own. Damnit! Even though she practises martial arts, Barry is too strong. Well, he must work out everyday to be captain of the very well known basketball team, Pallet Academy Pelippers. His face is so close, she can smell the heavy cologne he is wearing. She is about to use her last resort, biting, when she is forcefully pulled away from the lockers and into the arms of someone else. She is smothered into their chest and can't see. But she easily recognises the smell of forest and chocolate.

"What are you doing, Barry?"

Dawn can hear Barry growl,

"She's mine Paul, get your hands off her."

"Personally, I don't want her. But a jerk like you isn't good enough for my friend's cousin."

Dawn feels a tug at her heart, a tug of despair she notices. She tries to move from the bear-hug she is in, but she can't. Paul has probably forgotten he is almost squeezing the life out of her right now.

"Get off her!" Barry yells furiously.

"Don't kiss girls who don't want to kiss you, Barry. And I thought you were a gentleman." Paul smirks, he is about to turn to walk off.

But then Barry taunts him, "Better than a father who was so drunk he drove himself of a bridge and a mother who shot herself in the head!"

Paul tenses up, but then relaxes. She could even hear the smile in his voice,

"You're not worth it."

He turns to walk off, grabbing Dawn's wrist and pulling her alongside him. That's when Barry rams her into a locker again, only this time, she has a free hand and the punch connects. She breathes heavily, looking at the bleeding mess of the boy and his blood on her knuckles. The punch wasn't hard, so it wouldn't bruise him. She should have hit harder; she should've left him black and blue. Barry lets out another taunt,

"You're probably jealous because I can kiss any girl I want! So stay away from my Dawn!"

Damn Barry was annoying. For some reason, Paul looks really, really angry. He raises his eyebrows,

"Oh, yeah?"

That's when it happened. Paul's cold lips slightly brush her cheek and Dawn gasps in surprise, not expecting that at all. Especially from a guy that she barely knew, yet pissed her off greatly. Paul grabs Dawn's wrist again, lighter this time. He calls back,

"That's how it's done, Barry."

Barry yells. He is mad. Really mad. He wants Dawn. His lips in her hair, on her cheek, on her lips. Not only did Paul touch _his_ girl, he'd also tried to show him how to kiss a girl. On the cheek too, lame. The nerve! Barry knows how to kiss a girl. He knows how to make one fall in love with him. He smiles to himself, Dawn needs breaking in and he is the perfect one for the job.


	4. Chapter 4

Dawn blushes as Paul drags her away. She knew that he only kissed her cheek to enrage Barry, but her heart had other ideas. She could feel the erratic beating of her heart as she tries to stop the heat rising to her cheeks. She could hear voices from classroom 23. Paul drags her into the classroom and lets go of her hand. Inside, all eyes train onto her. Gerald smiles at her,

"Took you long enough. Had to get Paul to go look for you."

Oh, yeah, that academic club. Wait...Paul is apart of that? She sighs, her day keeps on getting better.

"Ran into some trouble, it was only a lovesick puppy though, so no need to pull code red," Paul smirks.

Gerald rolls his eyes, this must private joke that she doesn't understand.

"So, welcome Dawn. These are the club members: Paul, Serena, Wes, Rosa, Lucas and now you."

"And what is this club?" Dawn asks inquisitively.

"A group of agents that work for the PBI. The Pokemon Bureau of Investigation."

Wait...what?

"Wh-What?"

"Here's your PBI badge, make sure no one at home finds it. This is strictly between you and the PBI, got it?"

Dawn nods, stunned into complete silence. The PBI even have connections to a professor at an academy for the brilliant. Actually, now that Dawn thinks about it, people from genius academies have abilities that are useful to the bureau.

"So what do I do?"

Well, first of all, we need to wait until we get a job. We should be getting one in a few minutes."

Dawn nods and sits at the edge of the room, staring into space. She may look calm on the outside, but her head is spinning in circles on the inside. The others chat quietly, so that she can't hear them.

"Paul, you were waiting for her reaction, weren't you?" Serena giggles.

"Yeah, I'm surprised though." Paul replies.

"Why?" Lucas questions him, whilst doing some maths homework he had forgotten.

"Because she covered up her emotions so fast." Paul says minimally.

This leaves Wes to fill in what he missed out,

"So that's why we didn't notice any change in her expressions? You're the best one at reading them, so you were the only one to notice because you were looking for them? Wouldn't that mean that she would make a perfect undercover agent?"

Paul nods at both questions. But the latter question makes his stomach curl. He doesn't like people in danger and for some reason unknown to him, he really doesn't want Dawn to get hurt.

* * *

"Hey guys! We got a message!"

Dawn perks up in the corner and heads over to the main group, waiting for Gerald to read it,

"So, we need to pick up a suitcase of cash from a guy at the airport. But, no one must become suspicious. All I have been told is that the money is needed in an important case. Dawn, we do what we're asked without asking questions. You can get job opportunities and you are given a PBI certificate that can be used in any job or university application. No questions, alright?"

"Got it." Dawn nods.

Gerald continues, "So this'll be an undercover job right? Who would be the best fit? Someone not suspicious and good at controlling their emotions..."

Lucas volunteers, "How about the newbie?"

Rosa finally speaks, having thought carefully,"But she'd stand out far too much. I'm mean she looks like a supermodel, not the best look when you want to blend in."

"That's it! They didn't state we had to blend in; they only told us not to make anyone suspicious. And if Dawn is as good at concealing her emotions as you said, Paul, then she'd be good for the job!"

They were talking about her? Dawn wonders. Then an idea comes into her mind. Dawn eagerly asks,

"Anyway to wire the cameras to go out for a second at the switching time?"

"Yeah, but I can't be bothered to hack into the airport website now." Lucas complains, wanting to relax a bit after finishing his gruelling maths homework (damn, Miss. Potter needs a taste of her own medicine) .

It would take a long time too. Gerald smiles and looks at Dawn. Dawn lightly pushes Lucas' chair and him out the way. She pulls up some custom software she has saved to her memory stick. Both untraceable. She asks,

"What difficulty if it was the learning website?"

Gerald grins, "I'd say 49, they really need to improve. I mean, even Rosa can hack into their databases, though she has tripped some alarms before though."

"Only 49?" Dawn grins.

"What do you mean, only 49?" Serena asks, curious.

Both anyone can say anything else, Dawn begins typing. It's so simple, how has it not been attacked by hackers already? Her hands fly across the keyboard, typing in sequences of letters and numbers like it is her most fluent language. It only takes her half a minute and even Gerald is shocked. It took him atleast 1 minute 20 seconds. Dawn transfers the code to her phone, which is again untraceable. One click and the cameras would go off for one second. Serena helps Dawn pick an outfit and Rosa sorts out her hair. Wes spins around on the swivel chair, like a lunatic. Lucas sighs,

"I guess I have a hacking rival."

Gerald smiles, "Don't worry. I have a feeling that Dawn is going to be out in the field a lot. Her skills are good for onsite locations because of her speed and accuracy. But we need you to handle most of the hacking when she isn't here. She may have raw talent, but you have the experience."

Lucas smiles, a second hacker would make the jobs easier. Especially when one is a genius hacker with raw talent and the other a veteran hacker with good intuition.

"Hey Paul, can you be the driver?"

Paul sighs and gets ready, leaving with Dawn. Dawn looks stunning in a grey dress suit that compliments her blue hair. She looks older, like a business woman. As they leave, the PBI deputy-boss calls them on the smartboard. His face appears; he is a smart 50 year old man, with little hair left and a fancy suit.

"Who's going? Wait, don't tell me you sent the rookie?" He yells.

"She had the idea to hotwire the cameras," Rosa smiles.

The man grumbles to himself, his name is Debonte. Atleast, his code name is. The feed from the camera overlooking the airport takes up half the screen, while the man's skype call takes up the other half. They'll be there soon and they hope the switch works out well.

* * *

Dawn takes deep breaths, shaking like a leaf. Paul starts explaining,

"Here's the microphone and ear piece. Your codename is Ghost, you did pick it after all. Mine's Wolf. Rosa's is Mayhem. Serena's is Shadow. Lucas' is Overwatch. Wes' is Predator. Gerald's is Venom. The person who gives us our jobs is Debonte. Okay, you ready?"

Dawn nods and Paul stares emotionlessly at emotionless expression he tries to maintain always disappears when Dawn is around. She isn't calm at all, even though she tries to look it. Dawn steps out of the car and instantly all the eye are on her, she ignores her sweating palms and shaking knees. She carries a silver case in her clammy hands. Her earpiece feels heavy in her ear.

"Ghost, can you hear me?" Gerald calls through the earpiece.

"Yep, Venom, passing into the airport now. Just passed airport security." She replies.

"How did you get through the metal detectors?"

"I slipped the earpiece and microphone into the case just before I went through."

That's when she hears an unfamiliar voice,

"Maybe she isn't as bad as I thought."

That must be Debonte. The camera feed by the transaction point is on the screen in the classroom, the students, Debonte and Gerald studying it curiously. They can see the man before Dawn can. They know something isn't right, Debonte curses. He addresses Dawn,

"Ghost, someone intercepted the case. Likely, they are somehow armed and if they see you, or notice you take the package, they'll shoot. Okay, Overwatch, scan for more suspicious individuals on the , get out of there."

"Right on it," Lucas says worriedly, creases in his forehead forming.

They heard Paul on the earpiece,

"Ghost, this is highly important. Live up to that nickname and swap those cases."

"What are you doing, Wolf?" Debonte yells.

Dawn ignores the voices yelling at her from the other side of the earpiece and pulls out her phone. She begins to phone someone. Well, pretend to.

"Hey, did you find the witness?" She tells the phone, leaning against a wall, "What? They got shot, I thought you were keeping an eye on him!" She grumbles as she puts her phone down, muttering to herself,

"I hate being a lawyer."

A smooth, deep voice talks to her, supposedly the interceptor,

"Hey, having troubles? Sounds like...you're a lawyer?"

"Yeah. My witness got killed. You'd think that a witness would have more sense than to step in front of an window," She sighs, appearing to quickly reply to a message on her phone, before picking up her case and saying,

"Sorry, I've got to go. The paperwork isn't going to do itself. It's been nice meeting you..."

"Eric, my name's Eric."

She smiles softly, trying not to show the repulse for the man she feels and appears to have pulled it off. She waves and heads out the airport, cheering inside.

"Good job, Ghost. Drop the package off at the drop off point and return here. Ghost, Wolf, understood?"

"Yep." Dawn smiles, happiness clear in her voice.

"Got it, Venom." Paul answers, emotionless.

* * *

The drive to the drop off point is slow and gruelling, especially when they take different routes, shaking off followers, if there are any. The earpiece and microphone are disabled because they aren't needed anymore. The danger still hasn't set in for Dawn. Paul felt relieved when she'd returned, he'd been surprised at her acting skills. But within five minutes, he is super annoyed.

"Why can't we listen to the pop station?" Dawn whines, leaning back into the the comfy leather seat of Paul's truck.

"Because it's my truck. Get your own vehicle." Paul smirks at her.

"But...I still haven't got my license! I have had driving lessons, but I gave up before the final test." Dawn complains, regretting the choice she had made.

But after the accident, it took her awhile before she could even look at a car, never mind drive one. Paul just sighs and stops the car by a local park, that appears to be deserted at first glance. Paul hands her some sunglasses, even though it is cloudy out. Rolling her eyes, she slips them on. She looks like one of those guys from a bad spy movie or bad spy and undercover fanfictions. She grabs the case and heads towards the bench about 30 metres away. Paul is dressed in his school uniform, not suitable for meeting with the PBI, so he stays in the truck. A man in a suit and sunglasses appears next to her, holding out a badge. Dawn's eyes search the badge and knows it's not a fake. Flashing her badge quickly, he acknowledges her with a nod. She leaves the case on the floor and the man leaves, with the case securely in his hands. Dawn gets up and into the truck, throwing the sunglasses off. The drive to the school is equally as boring as the drive to the drop off point. Dawn is still surprised she pulled off the camera trick and convinced a package interceptor she was a lawyer. The interceptor would have used her as a hostage or something similar if she'd been caught. But when she can lie through your teeth, she rarely gets caught.

Serena hugs Dawn and cheers,

"Well done on your first mission!"

Gerald rubs his head in embarrassment,

"Sorry about the difficulty of the mission, we didn't know the package was intercepted. I guess lying is another of your good attributes."

Dawns smiles, "Yeah, I can fool most people. Well, except Paul."

Paul raises his eyebrows, so she'd noticed how he didn't buy her lie at lunch? Wes and Rosa are playing a game of chess, Rosa easily outplaying Wes. She may look like the weakest of the bunch. But what she lacked in strength, she made up in deviousness. Wes knew Rosa had already planned the entire game of chess and that she'd win every time they played. Rosa makes the best plans, often foolproof. When they don't go her way, the team is always good enough to get the job done. There is a reason her name is Mayhem, after all. Paul suspected that she could tell the Lily of the valley guards that she was the champion and they would believe her. She had a raw talent of lying, which has been perfected over the years. She is easily the best liar. But something tells him that Dawn's raw talents with gained experience would make her a fearful comrade. Serena is a master of disguise, whilst Wes judgement and perception skills are his best allies.

"It's five pm, you can go home now!" Gerald yells, cheerful because of the smooth mission earlier.

Dawn sprints after Paul, who is her only way back home. She wasn't walking the half an hour distance back home. She breathes heavily as she steps in the truck, now dressed in her school uniform. Paul gets into the driver's seat, asking,

"Ghost, do I really have to give you a ride home?"

"Yep, do you want your friend's cousin to go missing?"

"No," Paul grumbles.

* * *

May lays across her bed, texting on her phone. It is only 4:45pm, so Dawn probably hasn't left school yet. Gary and Leaf have music as their academic club, while Misty has engineering and Ash has maths. Unfortunately, it isn't only her who doesn't take part in any academic club. May feels a pressure on her bed, as someone sits down. She quickly shuts her phone.

"Texting someone?" Drew asks her, staring into her eyes. She averts them,

"No, I'm not. Leave me alone." May says, flipping onto her stomach.

"That's a lie. The not texting part, I mean." Drew says, smirking, "A boy?"

May yells, "It's none of your business!"

Drew's smile falters, but he continues, "So it is a boy then...Who is it?"

"Cheren."

Drew frowns, not that guy! He'd been hitting on May since first grade. Drew lays on his stomach next to May, watching her text. This annoys her tremendously, but she ignores him. She reads the message,

 **How's your day going? - Cheren**

 **Not bad, yours? - May**

 **Not bad either, are you free tomorrow night? - Cheren**

 **Sorry, I have my sports club on Tuesdays and Fridays - May**

 **I don't take part in any clubs. What club are you in? - Cheren**

 **The tennis club - May**

 **Isn't Drew in that club? - Cheren**

 **Yeah, so? - May**

 **I don't like that guy - Cheren**

 **Well, you don't have to. He is annoying at times, but he is a good friend. By the way, he is reading all my messages over my shoulders - May**

 **So are you free Wednesday night? - Cheren**

Drew looks at May with an expression. Had she forgotten the boarding house movie nights are on Wednesday? When everyone gets back from their academic clubs, they have to watch the movies with everyone else.

 **Sorry, boarding house movie night. Boarding house members only - May**

 **Are you sure you aren't avoiding me? How about Thursday? - Cheren**

May deliberates the fact. Cheren is nice and good-looking. Drew pulls out his phone, determined to finish this once and for all. He types in Cheren's number and sends a message.

B **ack off, Cheren. Unless you want another 'accident' like in third grade when you kissed her cheek. She's mine Thursday night, go find someone who's available - Drew**

Maybe Drew is horrible for claiming a girl, who doesn't have a boyfriend and hates his guts. But he isn't going to give Cheren the satisfaction. He hasn't lost the fight yet. Before May can respond, Cheren messages her again.

 **Sorry May, but I forgot that I have a family meeting on Thursday, it'll have to be next week ;) - Cheren**

May looks at the winky face in surprise, is Cheren flirting with her? She smiles slightly, atleast one boy found her pretty enough to flirt with, unlike Drew. Drew watches May smile, telling him that she liked Cheren flirting with her. He finds his blood pressure rising and he questions why May likes Cheren flirting with her, but not him. Or maybe, just maybe, she hadn't noticed him trying to flirt with her. He sighs, leaving another rose on her bed, before heading to his room in despair. For some reason, May feels a tug in her chest as he leaves the room, a pained expression very clear on his face. Why is he sad? She wonders as she touches the soft, red petals sadly.

Paul and Dawn return, bickering. Drew is sat on the couch, his eyes red as if he'd been crying. Not wanting to bring it up, Dawn says,

"Hey Drew! Can you help me with this song? I heard you study English and I think you could help me!"

Drew's expressions turn to somewhat normal and he nods. Dawn lets out a breath of held air as Drew walks in front of her to her bedroom. For some reason, Paul sits on her bed as they work. After about an hour, Dawn thanks Drew, who goes to help make food. Apparently, Leaf had dragged Gary shopping after the music club finished. 'Dragged' is an overestimation. Any command Leaf says, Gary would blindly follow. For someone who is looking for love, he is looking in all the wrong places in random girls he meets on the streets and at school. Leaf probably liked him at one point, which would explain her conflicted expressions when he hits on her. The sad part is that he probably flirts with her because that has become his personality. Dawn falls onto her bed, next to Paul, who watches her with a bemused expression.

"Tired already, Ghost?"

She laughs sarcastically,

"Haha, so funny Paul. Are we going to start this project or not?"

An hour later, they had many printed sheets of research on the topic including best suitable materials and the science behind that. An earthquake proof house sounds like a fun little project. Of course, Paul, has already seen through what Mr. Clark's project is about. He didn't need anymore friends. Especially, not one who would annoy the hell out of him on a daily basis. And, especially, not Dawn.


	5. Chapter 5

**I still haven't added a disclaimer, so disclaimer: I don't own pokemon!**

* * *

It's Tuesday and Dawn is already up far too early. It's only 4am, she sighs. Pulling off her covers, she walks swiftly into the kitchen and notices the patio doors are open. A cool gentle breeze wafts through the room and her eyes water from the beautiful fragrance of the flowers. She stops when she hears voices coming from the porch in the backgarden. She recognises them as Leaf and Gary's.

"Aren't the stars beautiful?" Leaf says, smiling at the bright colours above her.

"Not as beautiful as you," Gary says sweetly, still staring at the white dots in the sky.

"Why do you do that?" Leaf demands.

Gary sifts his feet and asks, "Do what?"

Leaf seems to explode; not in anger, but confusion.

"Why do you flirt with me?"

When Gary doesn't answer, she walks back towards the patio doors. Someone puts their hand on Dawn's mouth, pulling her into the shadows. Leaf steps into the kitchen, as Gary answers,

"I wish I knew myself."

She couldn't see Leaf's face from here, but she knew there'd be pain. The pain to either keep fighting or give up. But, Leaf, always chooses to beat herself up about it and Dawn desperately wants to run to her. However, the hands keep her in place and voiceless. Leaf stands still for a moment, before heading to her bedroom. Gary sighs and walks in, heading for his. The hands on her relax, and Dawn spins around to face Paul. Even though it is dark, she knows he can see her raised eyebrow. Paul doesn't say anything and grabs some popcorn from the cupboards. He finally breaks the deafening silence,

"Want to watch a movie?"

Dawn shoves popcorn into her mouth, watching a horror movie beside the jerk. Paul probably only wanted to watch it with her because he would be scared on his own, or something silly like that. She pulls the spare blanket over her, only for Paul to pull it back. Gritting her teeth, she pulls it back again. This goes on for several minutes, before Dawn edges closer so they're almost touching shoulders. The blanket now covers them both and she relaxes into the comfy couch, nodding off to sleep.

* * *

She wakes up, opening her eyes slowly. Her neck is stiff and she quickly learns why. Her head is resting on Paul's shoulder, as he sits watching television. Dawn knows that Paul knows she's awake, so she lifts her head to view the clock, which reads 6:12am. Dawn tries to pull herself off the couch, inviting the cold in under the warm covers. She blushes in embarrassment when she realises one of her legs is wrapped around one of Paul's. She manages to tug it free and goes to make breakfast for the house. Paul watches Dawn leaving the room, secretly not wanting the obnoxious, optimistic, naive and annoying Blunette to leave. But, he would never admit that. He decides to get up as well, now that the cold had seeped in. He walks into the kitchen and Dawn ignores him like usual. He had forgotten to wear a t-shirt last night, but he is not bothered enough to go grab one from his room. He ignores the cherry red Blunette and makes a good amount of toast for the sleeping boarding members. Dawn seems to be cooking everything in the house. She turns over the bacon, sausages, eggs, ham and gammon, having decided to make a big breakfast for everyone. Her and Paul set the table and load the plates with heaps of food, all while Dawn avoids looking at Paul. She has to admit he is good-looking, but why does her face get hot when she stares at the obnoxious jerk? She shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She sits down, Paul sitting next to her and they start to eat. Everyone slowly enters the kitchen as they wake up. They all share the same two thoughts as they enter. One, they actually cooked food? Two, did Paul forget his shirt again? Dawn seems the most bothered, does he usually does this? Dawn quickly gets ready for school and packs her bag. Her timestable is the same as Monday, so she doesn't have to worry about not knowing where her classes are. She then tames her hair and is about to leave, when she remembers that she forgot her sports kit. She finally finds it under the bed and rushes out the house, knowing she will be late if she doesn't hurry up. Gary left ten minutes later, so she'd need to take the bus or walk. Well, more like run. She almost makes it to the road before Paul calls out to her,

"Late? I can give you a lift, you know?"

Dawn stubbornly shakes her head, but Paul picks her up and throws her over his shoulder, throwing her into the truck.

"Kidnapper!" Dawn yells jokingly.

Paul just rolls his eyes and starts the truck. He actually drives quite fast, like Gary, knowing where all the speed cameras are at. Paul doesn't talk to her until they are halfway to school,

"Why are you late?"

"I forgot my sports kit." Dawn explains.

"We do swimming on Tuesdays, sports on the other four."

"Shit. What do I do?" Dawn yells, trying to think of a solution.

"You'll need your sports kit for your sports club anyway. I am sure May and Misty carry spare swimsuits, so you should be fine. If push comes to shove, I'm sure one of the girls will let you borrow their towel."

Dawn giggles and settles back, rubbing her still sore neck. She turns on the radio, which Paul turns off. This goes on for the rest of the way to school. They arrive at school slightly earlier than the bell and they head to their lockers. Dawn puts in her afternoon books and her sports kit, making a mental note to ask May or Misty for a swimsuit to borrow. The bell goes, hurting her sensitive ears, and she heads for computing. She is less excited for today than she was yesterday. She sinks into her comfy, swivel chair and logs into the computer so fast that she gives some people a scare. Paul walks into the room just before the late bell. Why is he almost late? He set off at the same time, didn't he?

That's when she hears a hushed whisper from the corner of the room.

"Hey, did you here that Barry got shoved into the lockers by Paul. They were talking about a girl, I think!"

She could see Paul tense when he hears his name. Dawn stares at him, but he avoids her eyes. He whispers emotionlessly,

"He was getting on my nerves; he won't shut up about you."

Is this because of what happened yesterday after school? Dawn tries to shove it to the back of her mind, but she fails miserably. In computing, she has to use basic html and software to make a website. She easily finishes it, and her mind is plagued again. Maths is similar, with Dawn being really out of it. She gets all the answers right, but she doesn't feel any better. It doesn't help that Miss. Potter is relentlessly with her difficult questions. Barry is really starting to get on her nerves, she says to herself. Then she realises she just broke the pencil she is holding from the pressure she was applying to it. Marina just stares at her and gives her one as a friendly gift. Probably a truce, Dawn giggles. She wouldn't hurt Marina anyway; Marina is too nice.

* * *

Finally, the break bell goes and she heads for the courtyard. Only to be stopped on Barry and pull into a desolate classroom. She tries to struggle, but she can't move. This seems awfully familiar to what happened yesterday. Barry smiles at her, causing her to shiver,

"Hello Babe, I'm taking you for dinner tonight at 7 pm."

Dawn tries to speak, but Barry slams his face towards her. She slaps him, her hand making contact with his face and making a satisfying sound.

"This is harassment Barry! Leave me the hell alone!" She yells, rushing from the room. Barry stares after her, clutching his hurting cheek. Was he too direct? Dawn huffs off into the school, trying to put as much distance between her and Barry as possible. If he wants her attention, he is going to have to change big time. She ends up in a lone corridor, suddenly realising she is lost. She looks through several rooms, they look like english rooms. She sighs and heads in a random direction and finally finds a familiar corridor just before the first bell for her third class, engineering, goes.

* * *

Break has just started and Drew walks through the halls, having just handed in his english paper. Deciding to take a detour, he notices how quiet the english rooms are. The soft sobs of a girl travel thorough the silent halls. He follows them, intrigued as to who is upset. Drew pops his head around the corner and sees May in the classroom they had had english in the lesson before. Tears stream down her face and Drew couldn't help but stare at her. Calling her beautiful would be an understatement, even when she is crying. Dawn is prettier, atleast that's what the other boys in his class tell him, and has the first glance beauty that everyone notices, but May has that second glance look, the one where you have to look at her again, to check if she is as beautiful as you saw. He silently enters the room; he stands by May and puts his hand on her's. He leaves a rose when he pulls it back. May manages to smile, but it doesn't reach her eyes. She stares at the rose in her hands and she whispers,

"I should have listened to you."

She looks like she is going to cry again. Drew surprises himself and May by pulling her into a loose hug. He whispers back.

"What happened May?"

She sighs, "You said I shouldn't mess with Cheren. Well, he talked to me after the english lesson...and...and he kissed me, Drew. He took my first kiss and then laughed. He...he told me that I was such an easy target. I can't get that kiss back. Why am I so stupid?"

She starts to cry again, soft tears falling from her eyes onto Drew's shirt. He just strokes her head and whispers softly,

"You're not stupid. It's just a kiss, May."

Her eyes flash angrily, but the anger quickly fades away and is replaced by sadness as she speaks,

"Not to me."

Her voice sounds so small, not like the usual stubborn, unpredictable May. He has to cheer her up somehow, so he says,

"Well, we already know Cheren is a complete idiot. He just preys on girls who he classifies as weak. But, you're not weak, May. You'll only be weak if you get upset about this. You're amazing, sophisticated and beautiful, don't let people tell you that you're not."

May stares at him with wide eyes, her cheeks going pink. That's when he realises what he just said.

"Wa-wait...I didn't m-mean to say-"

"Just shut up and kiss me already," May whispers.

Before, he can say a word, May's lips are inches from his. Without thinking, he does the one thing he has wanted to do for a long time; he presses his lips onto May's, gently kissing her and then kissing deeper. May kisses back passionately, her arms wrapping around his neck. He pulls May in closer, wrapping his hands around her waist. The tears have stopped falling down her face and May is only focused on the annoying green haired idiot in front of her, knowing she is stupidly in love with him. The first bell for third lesson goes and only then do they break apart from each other; they just stare into each other's glowing eyes. Drew knows that he and May have biology next and Mr. Markov would fry them if they are late. He grabs May's hand, pulling her along. His other hand putting a perfect red rose in her hair (next to her bandanna), almost as if he is claiming her as his own. But she doesn't pull it out and a smile forms on both their lips as they weave through the crowds to biology, hands entwined. Of course, they didn't expect Gary's expression when they walk into biology like that.

* * *

Dawn sits down in engineering, feeling a vibration and subtly pulling out her phone. She quickly reads the two texts. The first one is from Gary,

OMG! May and Drew just walked into class holding hands! - Gary

Dawn squeals and reads the one from May,

 **This guy called Cheren stole my first kiss, so Drew was trying to cheer me up. He told me I was beautiful, so I told him to just shut up and kiss me. He did! . - May**

Dawn does a little dance and Paul just stares at her. Just seconds earlier he had read a message from Drew,

 **That jerk, Cheren, stole May's first kiss; I want to kill him with my bare hands. Anyway, I was trying to cheer her up and I told her that she was beautiful by accident. She told me to shut up and kiss her. So I did. - Drew**

Dawn seems so ecstatic, a bright smile on her face. She says out loud, only loud enough for Paul to hear,

"I knew it! I knew Drew liked her!"

Her face seems to be glowing and her happiness is contagious; Paul finds himself smiling slightly. Dawn and Paul start talking about May and Drew, laughing like crazy on Dawn's part. Mr. Clark has yet to get the attention of the class, but he is just smiling at the interactions between Paul and Dawn. He didn't know he was teaching a chemistry lesson.

"Okay class, we're continuing with our projects today. You can use your phones for research and the computers in the corner. If you need to, you can experiment on the machine with different kinds of wood, to determine the right density etc." Mr. Clark calls, going back to his newspaper now the class have set off, he keeps his eyes alert, in case he is required by one of his students.

* * *

Dawn and Paul quickly get to work, Dawn pulling her laptop out of her pastel yellow bag. Dawn types at a seemingly inhuman speed, yet she never presses the backspace button, Mr. Clark observes, his newspaper laying forgotten. Her and Paul converse quietly and he goes off to test different pieces of materials. He is efficient, quickly testing them and writing down the results and observations. They'd probably compare later and write what materials they require for the properties they want it to have. Never in his teaching years had he seen such an efficient group, especially one where they aren't even friends. Atleast, that is what they insisted anyway.

Dawn flops down under the sakura tree, feeling hungry enough to eat her packed lunch. But she sees May and Drew walking towards her and she grins. Paul notices her change in expression and gets more comfortable to watch the show.

"Hey May! Hey Drew!"

"Hi Dawn," Drew says smoothly, he sits down, pulling May with him. Well, more like dragging because she literally falls into his lap.

"Aww, you lovebirds are so cute."

They both blush a cherry red. The PBI side of Dawn's mind tells her that they have genuine feelings for each other. Dawn has noticed how much easier it is to read emotions than yesterday, but she just shakes it off as over confidence. May quickly comes up with a comeback, sticking her tongue out,

"Says the girl who's never kissed a guy!"

Dawn blushes like crazy, she knows May means well, so she doesn't get angry like she would otherwise. Why had she have told May that anyway? Did she guess? She says back,

"Well, Barry tried again earlier, so I slapped him."

"Again?" Paul's voice interrupts the conversation. He mumbles to himself, "Must of been because I shoved him into the lockers."

Drew and May's eyes open wide in surprise and Drew says,

"You threw him into the lockers?"

Dawn laughs nervously, "No need to worry."

Paul shrugs and begins to eat. Dawn starts eating too, talking to Drew, May and Leaf when she arrives. Dawn grabs a grape from Paul's lunchbox and eats it, to his horror. She reaches for another one and Paul moves his lunchbox away from her. Humph! She turns back to the conversation again, wanting another grape. She asks, still sour over the grape incident,

"Where's Gary?"

"Music, he's helping tidy away the instruments," Leaf responds.

"Ash and Misty?"

"I don't actually know..."

* * *

Ash heads out of business studies as the lunchtime bell goes and towards the sakura tree, but a hand grabs his arm and pulls him backwards. Only one girl is strong enough to do that. Misty. He turns to face her,

"Hey. What's up Misty?"

She sighs, "I forgot my lunch, so I have to go off campus for some. The cafeteria's main meal is fish and you know I don't like eating fish...I don't want to go alone, but everyone is probably in the courtyard by now. I didn't want to disturb Paul and Dawn, they seemed eager to relax. Please, Ash!"

He sighs, following Misty to his car. He opens the passenger's door for Misty, letting her in, before shutting it behind her. He gets into the driver's seat, pressing a button that opens the roof. They drive out the school gates, noting they have forty minutes before the first bell sounds for fourth period, which is maths, a class that Misty is in. She isn't the best at maths though, so he always needs to tutor her. Ash goes to his favourite lunch place when he eats off campus. The diner is pretty and covered in all sorts of plants. This diner, unlike others, wasn't full of screaming children and angry parents. This place generally catered for teenagers and above. He pulls into the parking lot, opening Misty's door for her. The first few times, she complained, but now she doesn't say a word about it. And when Misty doesn't say anything, that causes Ash to worry. They sit at a table in the quieter area of the diner. Ash and Misty don't read the menu, having been to the diner enough to have memorised their favourites. They exchange small talk and Ash knows something is wrong. But, being the coward he is, he doesn't say anything. Misty smiles, but it is feeble and falters quickly. Something is very wrong. And Ash is determined to find out what.


	6. Chapter 6

May sits with her friends under the sakura tree. She can feel the heat from Drew's body and she sinks into him. She's been waiting for Drew to ask her out or on a date. But maybe she is hoping for too much too fast. She sighs inaudibly and squeezes Drew's hand that is in hers. She knew the fangirls would not talk to her all week, especially Brianna, who would probably not talk to her for a month. But May could live without the annoyingly lovesick girl for a month. It must be awful though. To love someone who doesn't love you. Her mind flashes to her and Cheren. Maybe he had once liked her, but then found it a game. Then her mind flashes to Barry and Dawn. Even though Barry is acting like a jerk, he must still feel dejected. She traces the lines on Drew's hand, having lost track of the conversation that is going on. Drew taps her bag and motions to her. They stand up, excusing themselves. They are standing at the edge of the courtyard when Drew speaks,

"Erm...I know it's really soon, but I was er...wondering if you wanted to be my...girlfriend?"

May smiles and says jokingly, "I'll have to think about that."

She sees Drew's face deflate and she almost yells at him,

"Of course, I'll say yes."

The smile returns to Drew's face and the first bell rings. He turns towards art and says over his shoulder,

"Be ready by 6 pm tonight."

"But, we don't get back from the tennis club until 5:15!"

Drew sticks out his tongue and calls, as he walks away,

"So? Bye April!"

"It's May!" She yells after him, wanting to punch and kiss him and not sure of which would be the best option at this time. Instead she heads towards her next class, almost in a daze, as the kiss at breaktime is still fresh in her mind, which overrode the kiss from Cheren, which was sloppy and childish. She has only kissed two guys, but she has heard kissing stories from some of her friends, so she knows that Drew is one hell of a kisser.

* * *

Dawn hurries to music, getting into class just in time. She had to retrieve her music book from her locker, which she had all but forgotten about. Maybe it is easier to carry all her books. She sits down and the teacher announces that she is going to assess them all. Jade talks to them,

"So, all you have to do is perform in front of the class, any song you want. Dawn, you did one yesterday, but you'll need to do another one today."

Dawn sighs, groaning internally. She watches all the boring presentations, only Leaf's and Paul's catch her attention. Both performed original pieces. Leaf's was called, 'Set fire to the watchman" and Paul's was "Dead and sound." Dawn is the last person and she picks up the school violin nervously. Jade looks at Dawn excited, how Dawn could play violin and sing at the same time was unbelievable. Dawn does a scale softly and begins; Jade clicks the record button on the recorder. Dawn's beautiful voice fills the room,

"When the lights are gone,

and the flames all die,

and our dreams fade,

breaking us on the inside.

When our days are short,

our lives determined by hours

Our thoughts and feelings,

locked away in the looming tower.

We want to save our lives,

but it'll kill us if we don't succeed

We need to make a stand

and save the light that we need.

No matter how tough it gets,

we are still ruled by fear.

Our lights are getting dim,

the end of us is near.

When our minds are enslaved,

we have no where to run.

Don't give up now,

we're close to the sun.

Our lights are dim,

it's too dark to see.

All the lights are gone,

all the lights are gone.

But we can't give up,

our lives are at stake.

We must stand up

and regain it back.

When the lights are gone,

and the flames all die,

and our dreams fade,

breaking us on the inside."

The room breaks into an applause, out of genuine fascination or politeness, Dawn doesn't know. Jade smiles as the girl sits down, maybe she isn't as useless at music as she'd guessed she was when she introduced herself. Her lyrics could be improved, but her violin playing and singing sounded raw and real, as if she was truly feeling the song. Damn, she'd make a good actress. Of course, Jade didn't know Dawn is part of the PBI, where acting and lying skills could get you far.

* * *

Dawn steps into the girl's swimming changing room. She looks at May expectantly and May instantly knows what's up. She digs into her bag and pulls out two swimsuits. Both are bikinis and she hands Dawn the white, frilly, lacy one, which thankfully has a smaller bust size than the other one, which is a beautiful red bikini that would make a supermodel jealous. It is common knowledge that May has the biggest bust size (D) out of the four boarding girls, Dawn (C), Misty (B)and Leaf (A) following respectively. Leaf may only be an A bust size, but she had an amazing hourglass figure, which shows through her pastel green one piece swimsuit. Misty is wearing a fiery orange two piece. Dawn and May quickly get changed, complimenting each other. May looks at Dawn and smiles,

"You can keep it; it looks better on you. It's too small for me now and I've been through your wardrobe, you could do with a pretty bikini."

Dawn hugs May in thanks, thankfully for a pretty swimsuit. May had failed to mention that she had over 20 different swimsuits anyway, but decides not to mention it. The four of them step out and literally every boy in or around the swimming pool turn to stare or oogle at them. Dawn feels self conscious about her chest, but she tries to act confident. Gary approaches them, kissing Dawn on the cheek in a brotherly kind of way.

"You look amazing, Dawn. And so do you, Leaf." Gary grins, sending a wink at Leaf, who rolls her eyes.

"Get lost Gary," she says.

"If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together."

"If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put F and U together!" Leaf comebacks, causing everyone to laugh.

Gary looks slightly hurt, but he quickly covers it with a grin. It is so painful to watch them; Dawn could feel her heart squeeze everytime she saw the hurt look on either of them. In it's own way, it feels like a toxic love, where their denial is like a stab to the heart for the other. Paul gives her a worried look and she nods her head. He rarely shows his emotion, but when he does, she can read him like a book. Her emotion reading has gotten a lot better and so has her concealing of emotions, while displaying others. She is sure she could pass as being surprised at a party she'd organised for herself. Drew probably hadn't seen May's new school swimming kit yet, because his face is bright red and he appears to be subconsciously blocking May from the view of watching teenage boys. He is whispering into her ears and whatever he is saying is making her cheeks turn bright red to match her swimsuit. He is probably complimenting her outfit, Dawn giggles. Dawn knows this is a nice bikini, but she still feels like she is showing too much skin. Especially when Barry is watching her from several metres away. She may have a perfect complexion, but that wasn't the root of her self conscious. The swimming teacher isn't here yet, so Dawn moves to the edge of the group to look at the water. Paul moves up behind her so silently, when he speaks, she jumps,

"Does that feared expression have something to do with that thin scar on your chest?"

Dawn has a thin scar that starts at her collar bone, disappearing under the bikini. The scar is no more than 10cm and is so faded, that she is surprised Paul even noticed it. She nods quietly, but doesn't expand, so Paul doesn't ask anymore questions. Even though his quietness is annoying at times, in times like these, the quietness is soothing.

* * *

 _"Mum? Where are you?" Young Dawn calls as her little feet sprint through the house. Her mum lays on the master bedroom floor, a pink mark visible on her cheek. But Dawn knows that in a few days, more bruises will appear and join the pre-existing ones. She looks up at the tall man,_

 _"Daddy? Why are you hurting mummy again?" She whispers in a small voice._

 _But she knew he was drunk and angry. He grabs a bottle and takes a swig, ignoring her question. He strikes the now empty bottle against the wall, so that glass shards fly everywhere. Small cuts appear on Dawn's skin, but they will heal in time. The mental cuts won't. The man swings at her mum with the broken bottle. Dawn sprints in front of her mother, her arms outstretched. But the bottle won't stop and the bottle hits his daughter. A clean, light cut appears on her chest, blood dripping from the wound. The man had tried to pull the bottle away, saving his daughter from a more serious or fatal injury._

 _"Daddy, why did you try to hurt mum?" Dawn whispers before collapsing to the ground._

 _The man rushes to catch his daughter. He'd told himself that he would never hurt her. But, here he'd just done that. He sees his daughter, her shallow wound bleeding slowly, seeping onto his shirt and he lets out a cry that doesn't sound human as he is torn between the one he loves and the alcohol and mental illness he suffers. He'd lose his daughter, the only person the alcohol and mental illness will allow him to love._

* * *

The swimming teacher enters the swimming pool, introducing himself immediately,

"Most of you will remember me from last year. My name is Mr. Graham, for those who don't know me or those who have forgotten. You should know everyone from gym yesterday, Mr. Monsoon told me you were playing volleyball. So we have Gary, Leaf, Brianna, Marina, Brock, Cilan, Drew, May, Misty, Ash, Hilda, N, Barry, Iris, Ursula, Ethan, Serena, Calem, Paul, Rebecca, Lyra, Dawn, Silver and Wally? Okay, you're already in groups of six right, let's do a relay so I can get a look at your skills. Also, Wally, Cilan, Leaf and Marina, don't forget you have swimming club after school. Okay, the sequence is backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, front crawl, sidestroke, freestyle."

Dawn takes deep breathes and feels a comforting hand on her back. There seems to be some sparks between the hand and her back and she can feel them travel up her spine, making her shiver. She says aloud,

"Paul, any chance we can win?"

Paul moves a bit, readjusting his hand on her back, making it more protective. He then answers,

"Group 1 have Leaf, Marina and Cilan. But we have Wally, so if you're a good swimmer, we stand a chance. Why are you concerned about winning?"

"I don't want to win, I just want to beat Barry's team." Dawn whispers, shivering from the sparks and the cold. They stand in a line, with Dawn at the back. She is the last swimmer and is going against Marina, Drew and Barry. The whistle goes and Wally does an amazing dive, having an amazing start with backstroke. But his height difference, affects his speed. They are in third place when he touches the wall, where Lyra sets off with butterfly. Her form is beautiful and Dawn can tell she used to do competitive swimming. She does the quickest turn at the end of the length, gaining them a temporary second place. Rebecca does a clumsy dive and starts swimming with the only stroke she knows, which caused problems in deciding who got each stroke. Her breaststroke is clumsy and they are in third place by the time she finishes. Dawn can see take notes on the side. Paul does an elegant dive and does a powerful front crawl, cutting through the water like a knife. His turn is slightly off, so he only manages to get second place. Silver does the hardest stroke on the list, sidestroke. But, he manages to keep up to Leaf, who is actually a good swimmer. Then Dawn get ready to dive.

* * *

 _"You're always swimming!" Zoey complains. Dawn has been swimming since she was 3 and practises everyday at the local swimming pool, so much that she get a discounts She'll be stopping at the end of this summer, just before she goes to visit her cousin in Kanto, so she can focus on her studies. Her timestable is always full. She gets home at 4, goes swimming from 4:30 until 5:30, eats, plays her violin from 6:30 to 7:30, then studies from 7:30 to 10, before going to sleep. It is so repetitive, but she won the sinnoh best young swimmer of the year award earlier this year and she has one more competition in the summer._

 _"Your front crawl is a killer, I pity anyone who goes against you in freestyle or front crawl. Though I am sure you could beat them in any stroke." Zoey, her best friend in Twinleaf, Sinnoh, laughs._

 _"Yeah, but I'm only 15, I couldn't beat a 20 year old," Dawn sighs, doing an underwater flip afterwards._

 _"Don't doubt yourself. You turn 16 before you go for your visit to Kanto, right?"_

 _"Yeah. But I am not a swimming prodigy or any type of prodigy, unlike them. I just train harder than they do."_

 _"Then go kick their butts."_

* * *

Dawn takes a deep breathe and the second that Silver touches the wall, she dives. She looks like a dolphin, diving way further than everyone else. She streamlines several metres, before starting her front crawl. She speeds forward, like a shark as the only sounds she makes is the 'plop' as the water droplets hit the water. Of course, the sound of the other swimmers cancels out the quietness. But, Dawn can't hear or see anything, just the wall at the end of the length. She is going faster than everyone else by far; Barry, Drew and Marina are far behind. Everyone watching her swim is entranced by her swimming. Her turn is perfect, she turns like a mermaid, as it is so natural and quick that one second she is there, the other she isn't. She switches to dolphin kick, surprisingly becoming faster. She always saves dolphin kick for the length back because it takes up more energy than the breaststroke kick. Her hand slams against the wall and Paul lends her a hand to get out. Marina's team comes second, Drew's team comes third and Barry's team comes last. Mr. Graham looks at Dawn, addressing her,

"That swim took you 16 seconds; 8 seconds for each length. That's a new pool record. Have you done competitive swimming before?"

"Yeah, I won the sinnoh best young swimmer award."

That shut everyone up. Mr. Graham quickly pulls out his phone and types the award into the search box. He reads aloud,

"A competition held in sinnoh every March. The swimmers takes part in five races and earn points depending on how they place. The five strokes are front crawl, backstroke, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke. The only person to achieve a perfect score is this year's winner, Dawn Berlitz." He stops reading and asks Dawn. "Would you join the swimming club?"

"Sorry, but I'm part of the track team," Dawn responds.

"But you don't have awards in running, do you?"

"I do, sinnoh best young sprinter award for 100m, 200m and 300m. Also, sinnoh best young cross-country award for 10km, 25km and 50km. Until the end of this summer, I ran 40km (24.8 miles) every morning from 5 to 7 am."

Is there something she isn't good at, Mr. Graham wonders. Barry just stares more intently at the 'perfect' girl. If only they knew that it was the only way to forget about her father, now locked up in an asylum. But, not being in sinnoh anymore just makes it feel like a bad dream. For the rest of the lesson, they do drills and practises to help determine a base grade. Dawn gets out of the swimming pool, being one of the last to leave. She had removed her makeup before the lesson, but she still looks flawless. A towel is thrown on her face and she pulls it off. Paul is already walking off before she can thank him. It smells like forests and chocolate and she wraps it around her cold body, as she heads to the changing rooms.

* * *

She arrives on time for the track club, her makeup redone. Ash, Paul and Gary are in the football (Soccer) club, May and Drew are in the tennis club, Leaf is in the swimming club and Misty is in the cheerleading club. The massive football field is next to the track and she can see the figures of people, playing football. Mr. Monsoon is the coach and when Dawn approaches, he goes pale.

"Mr. Graham told me about you. Good luck?" Mr. Monsoon says nervously. They quickly set up for a race before individual training, as in laps. Only 100m, she adjusts her body closer to the ground and into the perfect form to gain the quickest startup speed she can acquire. The whistle goes and she is off, along with the fourteen other members. But, even though they are sprinting their hardest, Dawn flies in front of them. She then puts herself into full effort mode when she reaches the 50m mark. If anyone is tailing her, they are gone now. She easily wins and her time is 11.5 seconds, her average. Maybe if she tried from the beginning, she'd be faster. The laps are repetitive, but she gets into the swing of it. She bounds into the changing rooms at 5:15pm, fifteen minutes later than normal. She doesn't bother getting changed and just grabs her stuff, hoping someone is waiting for her. She almost makes it to the car park, before she is thrown over someone's shoulder. Forest and chocolate.

* * *

"Paul, I can walk you know!" Damn yells.

"How did you know it was me? I'm not letting you down by the way."

She grumbles, but answers him anyway,

"You always smell like forests and chocolate," Dawn says, thankful that Paul couldn't see her cherry red face.

"You recognise me by my smell, you must have a very good nose then. And I smell like chocolate, must be my body wash." He mutters the last sentence, which Dawn doesn't think she's is supposed to hear. She tries to get down, but Paul's grip tightens. His hand holds her bare lower thigh, meaning she couldn't move. Well, with the electricity passing up and down her spine anyway, she probably wouldn't be able walk. Humph! She has an amazing idea of how to get free, she presses her lips against his back. When he doesn't respond, she tries again.

"What are you doing, Ghost?" Paul demands, they are halfway across the car park, the truck parked right next to the car park entrance.

"Trying to make you let me go." Dawn says, managing to twist her body.

"It isn't going to wo-"

Dawn has twisted her body enough to kiss the back of his neck, causing him to freeze and let Dawn fall back off his shoulders. But his hands are still gripping her waist, so she can't move.

"Humph!" She sighs, not being able to move. She looks up to look at Paul's face, which is closer than she thought it would be. In the one moment she isn't moving and is frozen, Paul picks her up bridal style and literally throws her into the car.

"Hey! Paul!" Dawn whines, as Paul gets into the driver's seat.

She does her seatbelt and watches the speedometer rise as they set off home. Then, she asks,

"Why did you wait for me?"

"To ambush you. Well, that's one of the reasons. Barry seemed to be milling about; I didn't trust him around you."

Dawn teases Paul, "Are you sure that the reason isn't because you are irresistibly in love with me?"

Amazingly, Paul's cheeks become a soft pink colour and he yells back,

"I'm sure!"

Dawn just about has a laughing fit, "I was only teasing you, Paul!"

"I know, Ghost. Project or movie?"

Dawn thinks for a second and responds, "First food. Then project until 8, then movies?"

Paul nods, seeming to have become his emotionless self again. Dawn continues chatting aimlessly in the comfortable silence. He listens to everything she says.

"Drew's taking May on their first date today, I hope it goes well."

Paul says simply, "It will."

After several minutes of silence, Paul says,

"Ready for PBI after school tomorrow? Do us a favour and try not to get killed or mess up."

Dawn nods seriously, then playfully says,

"I'm perfect; I never mess up."

"You could fool everyone else, but you can't fool me. You aren't perfect, but you're eons closer to it than most of us." Paul says.

It is a weird sort of compliment, but Dawn finds it refreshing to not have to pretend to be perfect in front of Paul. She's only know him since Sunday, but he seems to be the person that understands her the most. More than May, Leaf or even Gary.


	7. Chapter 7

May smiles slightly, having been told to dress really nice, she wears a flowy red dress that floats around her body. She brushes her hair, Drew finally giving her the hairbrush back. She doesn't wear the bandanna, but puts a rose in her hair from one of the many in the vase. When she'd got home, she found a bouquet of roses in her room and they were from Drew, of course. It is twenty to 6 pm, so she slips on her red heels, grabs her red clutch and heads to Drew's room, to look for him. She pushes open the door and her face goes red. She hisses,

"Damn arceus, put a shirt on please."

Drew laughs and teases her, "Like what you see?"

Her face glows bright red. Drew works out everyday, so he has a really toned body. Because he is so fit and healthy, he is a fierce opponent in tennis. But when they play doubles as partners, they demolish everyone, because they cover each other's flaws. Drew is sat on his bed, combing his hair. So, May sits on the bed next to him. He smiles at her,

"The dress looks nice on you, April."

"My name is May!" She yells.

She is suddenly taken by surprise when she turns her head to face Drew again, when she relaxes that his face is really close to hers. He slowly presses his warm lips to hers and they move in sync. Their lips part and he whispers to her,

"You're cute when you're angry."

She slams her lips onto his, shocking both herself and Drew. His hands hug her waist, while hers trace Drew's abs. He growls when she slows down, pushing her down onto the bed. One simple kiss had turned into a makeout session and Drew pulls back after several minutes, checking his clock. 5:50pm. Arceus!

"I have 10 minutes to get ready, but we can continue later," He grins cheekily at May, who blushes.

What has got into her? She can't even look at Drew without blushing and her heart beating faster. Is this what love is like?

* * *

"Misty? What's going on?" Ash asks, finally gathering the courage to ask his friend what is wrong.

Misty turns towards him, tears in her eyes. She whispers softly,

"Oh, nothing."

"Hell, it's not nothing, Misty! Something's going on!" Ash yells.

This seems to knock some sense into her and she sits next to him on the bench in the garden, watching the sunset. She whispers the following sentences, but Ash hears every word,

"My sisters want me to return to Cerulean, but I don't want to go back. I am going to go visit them at the weekend, but I don't think I can convince them to let me stay in Pallet town."

"Then I'll go with you," Ash suggests.

"Really Ash? That'd never work. But, by girantina, you never think of what you're going to say before you say it." Misty says, describing Ash's outspokenness perfectly. She adds, "But, even if you are an annoying idiot, I could do with the company."

They stare at the setting sun and after a few minutes, Misty speaks again,

"Saturday morning at 8am. You can see me off, but you're not coming with me. Got it?"

Ash nods energetically, watching the beautiful hues of the sunsetting sky float across the sky. They hear Drew's voice yell over the house, "May and I are leaving now, bye guys!"

Ash outspokenly smiles, "He said 'May' before 'I'."

Misty looks at him, "He is so in love with her."

They continue with small talk for several more minutes, enjoying each other's company. Well, in between Ash getting hit by a mallet. His other friendships take loads of effort and he has to think about what he says. But with Misty, it's easy.

* * *

Dawn and Paul hear Drew call,

"May and I are leaving now, bye guys!"

Drew calls it so loud, people in the backgarden would be able to hear him.

They work for several more minutes before Dawn looks at Paul,

"I am going to make some food, don't mess up the research."

Paul sends her a smirk, "Ghost, as I said, you are the one most likely to make mistakes."

Dawn sticks out her tongue at him and heads to the kitchen, pulling out the three massive pizzas. She puts them onto plates and carries two to the living room, where Leaf, Misty, Ash and Gary are having a gameathon. She then carries the other heavy plate to her room. Paul is sat on her massive pink bed, which makes Dawn want to laugh, researching the project with her laptop. She sets the plate with the massive pizza on at the end of the bed. She grabs a piece and then she sits onto the bed, sinking slightly. She sits comfortably on her bed, her right leg pressed against Paul's left one. He hands her the laptop when he has eaten her slice of pizza and she writes twice as quick as Paul did. He grabs two slices of pizza and she says, without taking her eyes off the laptop's screen,

"Greedy, much?"

Paul looks at her and says, "I'm still getting taller."

He says it so seriously that it causes Dawn to become hysterical.

"As if. You're already freakishly tall." Dawn says truthfully.

They'd been given a month for this project and already they had almost reached the mid-point of the research, even though it is only the second day. Paul would find the information on his phone or experiment with materials, whilst Dawn would write up all the finding very quickly. They had been given a sheet with what they needed to include and both had already memorised it. The actual building would take longer than the research. There is a knock at the front door, that they can only just hear.

* * *

Gary approaches the door, a slice of pizza in his hands. He slides open the door and Barry is stood there. He resists the urge to punch him and asks coldly,

"What are you doing here?"

"I told Dawn that I would take her on a date tonight." Barry says confidently, his stance showing he isn't going to move.

Gary racks his brain for an excuse. He knows Dawn wouldn't want to go, she is strong, but not strong enough to fight off this lairon. She's in the shower? No, he'll wait. Leaf comes up behind him quietly and talks,

"She's doing homework."

Damn, he knew Leaf hates lying and he just hopes Barry doesn't want to come in.

"Can't it wait? What is she doing anyway?" Barry demands angrily.

"She has to do an engineering project with Paul," Leaf says truthfully again.

"You trust her to be in a room alone with him!" Barry explodes, his hands pulled into fists.

That's when Gary cuts in front of Leaf,

"Yes I do; I trust Paul. I wouldn't trust you to be within metres of Dawn."

"You trust the guy with suicidal parents but not me!"

That's when Leaf gets angry, something she mostly reserves for Gary. She talks quietly, yet each word is threatening,

"Yes. Now, how about you leave before I call the police or even the PBI?"

Barry glowers at her, but turns and leaves. Gary and Leaf knew that Paul had a rough childhood, but they hadn't known that his parents had died. They exchange a glance and Gary goes off to tell Dawn about Barry, while Leaf sets off back to the living room. Gary stops and calls over to Leaf,

"Hey Leaf. I think I need a burn heal, because you're too hot."

"Is that a sudowoodo in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" Leaf calls back, before she rounds the corner.

Gary smiles, he's made progress. Even though Leaf probably just wanted to annoy him. He makes it to Dawn's room and finds her typing like crazy on her bed, Paul eating pizza next to her. He almost falls over laughing when he sees Paul sitting on the pink bed, oh arceus, this is hiliarious. But, Gary regains his composure and speaks up,

"Barry came by saying something about a date. Leaf managed to send him away."

Dawn looks at him in relief, "Thank god. What did you tell him I was doing?"

"Leaf told him that you are doing a project with Paul before I could cut it. He turned into a charmander!"

Dawn laughs lightly and thanks Gary, before getting back to work. Paul remains emotionless, but the corner of his lips turn up slightly. Gary leaves the room, heading back to the living room to 'try' to defeat the others at videogames.

* * *

It reaches eight pm and Dawn falls back onto the bed, fed up with typing. Paul, unexpectedly, tickles her stomach and she starts giggling,

"Paul, please stop!" She manages to say in between giggles.

She struggles to move with the sparks as it is. Finally, he stops and says,

"I think the others have left the living room now. Movies?"

"Why do I have to watch movies with you?" Dawn whines, but she gets up anyway.

Dawn never understands Paul, but rushes to the living room; everyone else had gone to their rooms. May and Drew had returned several minutes earlier and had gone to Drew's room. She knew they'd be making out, so she didn't go to ask how their date went. She picks out her favourite horror movie and plays it. Turning off all the lights and wrapping up in the blanket. Paul sighs and pulls the blanket over him too. About one hour later, she thinks she hears footsteps, but when she listens again, she can't hear anything. Then she feels a cold hand touch her arm. She yelps and jumps away from the hand, into Paul. Gary starts laughing,

"Oh arceus, you really do get scared easily. Enjoy the movie, how you can laugh at horror movies, I don't know." Gary leaves for the kitchen and Dawn's heart finally slows down and she takes a deep breath. She realises that she is literally sitting in Paul's lap now. She tries to move, but Paul's iron grip keeps her in place and he whispers teasingly in her ears,

"Who'll protect you from the ghosts?"

She can see him smirk and she yells back,

"I'm not scared of ghosts."

"Then why are you shaking, Ghost?" Paul asks.

She doesn't say anything. She isn't shaking because she is scared; she is shivering because Paul's fingers are tracing patterns on her arm. She settles back, warmer than before. She uses the blanket to cover most of her red face, even though it is already concealed in the darkness. The movie plays on and she begins to feel drowsy. She leans her head back onto Paul's shoulder and before, she knows it, she has fallen to sleep. Paul's face heats up when he sees the sleeping Dawn against his shoulder, her face against his neck. Hesitating slightly, he moves his head and presses his lips against the blunette's hair. She moves slightly, but doesn't wake up. The movie finishes and Paul turns it off using the remote control. He gently picks Dawn up, bridal style, and begins to carry Dawn to her room. He passes Gary in the hallway, who just nods at him. Dawn's sleeping face is so peaceful. She doesn't have to pretend to be perfect when she's asleep. He lays her on her bed, she is wearing some comfy clothes, so he tucks her under the covers. He turns to leave, whispering,

"Night Dawn."

* * *

Gary walks past Paul, who is carrying a sleeping Dawn to her room. She looks so peaceful and Gary nods appreciatively at Paul. She needs some distractions, to prevent her from having another breakdown, like after the death of his aunt, her mother. He finds Leaf on the patio again, strumming her guitar. He plays the guitar too, but he'd left it in his room. So, he sits down next to her, listening to the beautiful noises as Leaf's hands strum the delicate instrument. Her song comes to an end. And Gary grins,

"I'd love to strum your g-string."

Leaf groans and states,

"Firstly, that is not happening. Secondly, I don't own a g-string."

Gary smiles teasingly, "That could be arranged."

"Just shut up, Gary." Leaf blushes, wanting to punch the jerk in the face.

It is her 17th birthday on Thursday and she reckons no one remembers. She honestly doesn't want anyone to fuss over her, so she hasn't told anyone. While she is thinking, Gary is thinking of another pickup line,

"I C major potential in us getting together."

She sighs, "I don't."

She catches a flash of pain on his face, as she stands up and walks into the house, carrying her guitar. She tries to stop tears falling down her face, why does it hurt so much saying no? She doesn't like him anymore. That is what she convinces herself. Back in the garden, Gary stares up at the stars and whispers sadly,

"Maybe one day."

* * *

Dawn wakes up in her bedroom, earlier than usual, in the clothes she changed into last night. She gets changed quickly, brushing through her nest of her. She adds minimal makeup and picks up her bag. She'd left her morning books in her locker, so she only has her music book and sports kit with her. She walks towards the kitchen and sees May coming out of her room. She is still in her pyjamas and is yawning. Dawn smiles at her and May immediately becomes hyper,

"Drew took me to nicest restaurant, it was amazing."

* * *

 _"Drew, you're taking me to the most expensive restaurant in town!" She yells, then more quietly adds, "You didn't have to."_

 _Drew just smiled at her, his father is rich and he has so much pocket money that he has saved and he has nothing to spend it on. He easily has 2 million in his account, this restaurant would probably cost him around 300 pokedollars in all, which is nothing. He opens the sport car's door for May, who steps out. She looks beautiful and he feels nervous as they entwine hands. Can such a beautiful girl like him? Drew worries, as he pulls May along with him. People nearby, turn to stare. At them or May, he doesn't know. They are seated at a table filled with roses and candles. The roses aren't as pretty as the ones Drew give May, but they will do. That's when Drew notices a well known reporter approach him. He looks at May apologetically, but she understands. Whenever they went out together last year ( as friends who annoyed the hell out of each other) most of the time, a reporter or someone who recognises him would be there. The reporter approaches and introduces herself,_

 _"Hello, my name's Solidad. You're Drew Hayden, the son of the CEO and founder of and Hayden and co. right?_

 _Drew nods cautiously, he hates being known as his father's son and not as his own person. When he'd met May, she didn't even know who his father was and when she learnt, she didn't care. She didn't befriend him for his money, but because she got along with him like fire and grass. She was more different than any girl he'd known. Even though they fought alot, she'd always come back. Solidad continues,_

 _"Mind if I take a picture of you and May? Are you finally dating? I mean, it's been a year now. You met on your first day at the Academy, if I remember all the tabloids correctly."_

 _"Yeah, we did meet last year, yes you can take a picture and yes we are finally dating."_

 _Solidad's eyes widen and a smile appears on her lips. She takes a picture, having her next scoop already planned out. Drew doesn't worry much. He's heard of Solidad before and every article she has written about him is positive. This will also open up more opportunities for her. She smiles and leaves them alone. Drew turns to May, looking into her eyes,_

 _"So, where were we?"_

* * *

Dawn smiles, happy for her friend. She makes a mental note to pick up the Pokestar, the popular tabloid that Solidad works for. Dawn is a big fan of Pokestar and Solidad is her favourite journalist. She skips into the kitchen, grabbing some cereal. She is the only one who is in their school uniform and is ready for the day. Paul stumbles into the kitchen, once again shirtless. Dawn was expecting it, but she still can't stop a pink tint from appearing on her cheeks. Paul is once again emotionless, thinking about if they will get a mission from the PBI and what it will be. Everyone manages to get ready on time, surprisingly. Dawn sits in the living room, watching tv. Drew, May, Ash, Paul and Misty left earlier in the other cars. Gary pops his head into the room,

"Time to go, Pink."

Leaf is in the back seat, so Dawn sits next to her. Gary gets into the driver's seat and starts driving. Dawn tells Gary to stop outside a newsagents and she quickly buys the tabloid. They set off to school, at the rate they are going, they'll make it there with plenty of time to spare. On the front page is a picture of Drew and May sat at a table in the most expensive restaurant in town. May is looking at Drew, a slight rose tint to her cheeks. Solidad really captured her beauty. Drew is smiling at May, lovingly. It's a beautiful picture and Leaf agrees too. The title reads,

"Drew Hayden and May Maple together at last!" A smile forms onto her lips.

When they reach school, she dumps all her books from her locker into her bag. She walks to computing slowly. Watching and reading everyone's expressions around her. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Depression. So many emotions, some which people try to hide. But a slight slip of the mask or body language and Dawn could see their true emotions.


	8. Chapter 8

The day goes quickly, Dawn completing her work perfectly. It seems like only minutes since she'd started the day. Her volleyball team had been thrashed by team 2, losing 25-15. Atleast they had scored 12 more points off them than group 1 did. She walks towards room 23, thorough the desolate corridors. She knows he's there; she notices someone is following her. She calls out,

"Barry, you think you can fool me with that horrible tailing?"

Barry steps out from behind the corner, sighing in defeat. He grins at her when she doesn't run. He keeps a reasonable distance between them and surprisingly apologises,

"I'm sorry for my awful behaviour. I was jealous because I didn't have you. I can understand if you don't want to see me again, I was a jerk."

Dawn smiles softly, "It's okay, Barry. Apology accepted."

Barry grins and waves, "I'll leave you to your academic club. Thanks, Dawn."

She knew he is scheming something, she can tell by the way his lips pull up at the corners too much, at the increased eye contact and nervous twitching of his left hand. She stares after the figure, who seems so uncoordinated for a basketball player; his speed means he bumps into everything. Dawn used to be clumsy, but then she took ballet for eight years and that sorted her out. By the time she reaches the the classroom, everyone else is already there. Wes and Rosa are playing chess today, but Rosa seems really distracted. Serena is reading fashion catalogue, suggesting outfits to Lucas, who is giving constructive criticism. Paul sits in the corner in a world of his own. Dawn slowly sits down and Serena instantly smiles at her,

"Hi Dawn, why are you late?"

"Barry was apologising to me."

"You mean the guy everyone is shipping you with?" Rosa asks.

"What?"

The voice came from behind her. Paul. He looks emotionless, but she knows he is wearing a mask. Why does he care, anyway? Barry had apologised for his behaviour. She sighs, sitting in a swivel chair. She hadn't been told that people have started shipping her and Barry, the captain of the basketball team. She is about to log on to the computer, when Gerald speaks up,

"Mission just in, sounds tough; we'll need the entire team."

Everyone perks up and pay more attention to the teacher's words. Gerald keeps speaking,

"Okay. A break in mission; we need to determine whether there is a bomb in the Palkia's compound in Viridian city outskirts."

The Palkia and Lugia gangs are notorious in Kanto, causing all sorts of Mayhem. If they have a bomb, the PBI will need to dispatch troops in immediately.

"Okay, Lucas and Serena, you're at base. Serena help the others suit up in black. Lucas, you're on overwatch and hacking and Serena, you're on comms. Dawn, bring a mobile hacking device."

Overwatch is a digital map that would show traps that are picked up by certain chemicals. These didn't help with tripwires though, but that's what Wes' eyesight is for. Dawn nervously gets into the black suit, Serena zipping it up. She ties up her hair into a ponytail. She can't be seen and that makes her even more nervous. If she is seen, she has to dispose of the viewer, PBI's orders. Not like any of the government will mind less gang members. The disposing part is what has rattled her. It seems too real now, what has she gotten herself into? She puts on her earpiece and microphone, her heart racing. She has no pockets and normally they would carry bags, but they need to be as fast as possible. There is a belt, but the device is too bulky and could hit something when she is moving, alerting guards. Deciding fast, she slips the mobile hacking device into the front of her suit. Rosa doesn't look nervous at all and is actually grinning, which unsettles Dawn. She steps into the main room, where Lucas is busy setting up the overwatch program for the Palkia compound. It is still quite light out and she knows she won't be back until late. She picks up her phone,

"Hey Blue!"

Gary smiles on the other side of the phone, "Hey pink, what's up?"

"Me and Paul are going to be late back from club. There's a massive project due for tomorrow and all the other club members are staying late too." Dawn lies smoothly, as if she was actually working on a project.

"Okay, get Paul to drive you home, Pink. It's getting darker and I don't want you getting hurt. What is your club, anyway?"

Dawn looks around and she mouths her problem to Lucas, he writes down on a sheet of paper,

'Everyone in the school thinks this the machinery club, basically making functioning machines like toasters for example.'

Dawn smiles a thanks and lies smoothly again,

"The machinery club, we have to make a self-cooling fridge for a competition tomorrow after school. I'd invite you, but it's at the same time as your music club. I have to go, I need to do some equations to help solve this temperature problem we're having."

"Okay, love you Pink."

"Yeah, love you Blue."

* * *

Lucas looks up, "Boyfriend?"

"Nope, cousin. He's called Gary." Dawn says, truthfully.

"The infamous Gary Oak? The one who hasn't dated a girl after a gazillion dates?"

"That's the one," Dawn giggles, Gary must be so well known in the school.

He has so many girls after him, for two reasons: because he is handsome and because they want to be his first girlfriend.

"You sure you're not a pathological liar?" Lucas jokes.

"I'm sure," Dawn smiles.

She lies to protect people, not because she likes it; that isn't the case at all. Paul walks into the room, also dressed in a black suit. He looks angry and Dawn can't tell why. All too soon, they sneak past all the club rooms and into the 'machinery' club's van. Wes sits in the front seat, Rosa sitting shotgun. The van has seven seats, so why does Paul choose to sit next to her? The drive is long and Dawn feels drowsy by the time they reach Viridian city. They head for the outskirts, not the city centre. They reach an old, gigantic, seemingly unused silk warehouse, that must of been used before the silk crash. They step out and Dawn can feel her heart pounding in nervousness. She feels a steady hand on her shoulder and turns to see Paul. He whispers,

"Calm down, you have us; we'll protect you."

Dawn smiles slightly, but her heart doesn't slow down, it speeds up. She can hear Gerald's voice from the earpiece.

"Okay, Predator, Mayhem take the left side and enter through the drains, but remember to put on your breathers, they should be attached to the belt on your suits. You're team Omega. Wolf and Ghost, you take the vents. You're team Alpha. Keep in contact with Shadow and Overwatch."

Rosa and Wes grab their breathers and sprint off in a direction, guided by Shadow via comms. Overwatch guides Dawn and Paul to the vents opening, past patrols and watches. Dawn has a feeling that her and Paul have the most difficult route. The vent is shut and high up and Dawn turns to Paul,

"Wolf, give me a boost," She hisses, keeping her voice low. She backs up a bit and runs at Paul, who boosts her up. She clings onto the vent covering, literally unscrewing the bolts with her fingernails covered by the black, thin, silk gloves. She skillfully drops the vent into the vent shaft and uses her legs to push off the wall and slip into the vent. Paul jumps up and catches Dawn's outstretched hand. She uses all her strength and surprisingly manages to pull him up. He wonders if she really is as weak as he had thought.

* * *

"Okay Overwatch, Shadow, Venom, we're in the vents." Dawn whispers.

"Predator and Mayhem are in the sewers," Rosa mumbles.

Serena addresses both teams, "You have sixty minutes before the alarm triggers, you need to look for a bomb or any evidence of one. I don't care if you are about to grab evidence of the bomb when sixty minutes is up, you get out of there straight away. Overwatch can only delay the alarm by sixty minutes; fifty-eight now. Overwatch'll guide you if you get near any seeable traps and comms is open if you need me."

Dawn props the open vent cover against the opening, unless the patrols look too carefully, it should pass. And with that Dawn crawls quickly through the vents, not making a sound. Paul occasionally makes some sounds and is slower, but that could be due to how low he has to crouch in the vents, otherwise his head would be banging along the vent's roof. She hears a small beep and puts her watch near her mouth. Well 'watch' isn't the correct name, it's a functional microphone. She touches the button on the side, disguised as the crown (the thing that changes the hands) and speaks,

"There's a sensor ahead of team Alpha?"

"Shit, sorry, it didn't pick up on any. New sensor? Why would the Palkia gang have the newest sensors that program overwatch hasn't had added to it yet? Can you disable them?"

Dawn looks around the corner, the sensor is facing her way.

"It's facing this way. They're prepared for a vent invasion, damn." Dawn sighs, trying to look for another solution.

"I can probably emit a radiowave from your watch, but it'll only deactivate it for 15 seconds. You sure you can hack the newest, best security sensor, that isn't even on sale yet, in fifteen seconds?" Lucas asks worried.

Dawn smiles, "Well, there's a first time for everything."

Dawn pulls the mobile hacking device from the front of her suit, causing Paul to look away with wide eyes. What is with him today? She tells Overwatch she is ready and he emits the blocker. She plugs the device in and starts hacking straight away, cracking it within five seconds.

"Overwatch, you sure it's the newest kind? It only took five seconds to hack." Dawn asks curiously, putting the mobile hacking device into it's designated spot.

"You're just a genius, that's why."

They fall gracefully out of the vent into a white room, behind a white curtain. Just as the door opens. Paul quickly takes action, pushing Dawn and himself into a closet.

"Anyone in here?" A mysterious voice says.

Dawn turns on her microphone, utilising the opportunity for Lucas to make a recording of it. They hear the curtain being lifted up and checked behind. Dawn feels really claustrophobic and she looks up at Paul. Damn, his face is close to hers and he is staring into her blue eyes. The closet is small and both their backs are against opposite sides of the closet, but their arms are awkwardly digging into each other, so Paul puts his arms over her head. She can feel the spark radiating off her. This reminds Dawn of what Barry had done to her, but Paul didn't have any ill intentions, or atleast she hoped. Also, with Barry, there were no sparks, only annoyance. Of course, the microphone is on and Team Alpha and the three at base are listening in.

"No one's here." Another suspicious voice calls back, close to the closet.

"Okay, so you have the plans for the bomb?"

Dawn starts to gasp quietly, but Paul puts one of his hands on her mouth.

"Yeah, I left them locked in my office."

"Which one? You have several."

"The one on the first floor, right next to the grunt barracks."

"Oh, that one. Is it safe?"

"Yeah, no one knows where it is."

"When do we start constructing the bomb?"

"Hopefully tomorrow. We have a meeting now, Geovin."

"Fine."

The door shuts and Dawn turns off the microphone. She looks up at Paul and realises their faces are closer than before, a dark blush blooms onto her face. She can smell his wonderful scent from here and it takes all of her remaining sanity not to move closer. Paul bursts from the closet, trying to regain his composure and control. Dawn follows and they both climb into the vent again.

* * *

"Team Alpha, Team Omega head towards the office. But watch out in case it is a trap."

Dawn then passes a room filled with weapons, such as guns and melee weapons. She looks at Paul, who shakes his head. She rolls her eyes and jumps into the room, landing like a cat on all fours. She grabs: four black, silenced guns, with normal bullets, that are probably not on the market yet; four small dart guns with sleeping darts; four sharp switchblades; and holsters for each of the weapons. She throws three of the sets into the vent and is about to jump in herself. A grunt enters the room, not seeing her until he is too far in to run for help. He's seen her face. His eyes widen considerably at the sight of the beautiful woman in front of him, a small dart gun, switchblade and silenced gun, which are holstered on her belt. He backs up and she is so fast that she is a blur. She pulls the silenced gun from it's holster like a whip and fires it with such accuracy that it hits the middle of his forehead. Thankfully no blood falls to the carpet and she quickly hides him in a cupboard. Then it settles in...she killed a man. She takes deep breaths, but she can feel the tears running down her face. She wants to sob, but that will give away her position. That man had a family. He wanted to destroy the world, but he is...was human. Paul is weighed down by the many sets of weapons, but he jumps down next to her and whispers,

"You can cry when the mission is done."

The vent path to the office is dead silence, Dawn more depressed than usual. But not as depressed as when she is alone. She deactivates more sensors, which the vent is riddled with. The minutes tick by, with Dawn desperately wanting to stretch her legs and stand up. They push open the vent, getting out swiftly. Rosa and Wes enter through the door; Rosa holding an expensive looking lockpick set in her palms. The safe should be around here. Wes sits by the door, on guard. With his good hearing and perception, he should be able to detect any unwelcome intruders. Paul hands out their weapons, that they nervously take. Rosa and Wes load their guns and get back into position. Paul and Dawn scour the room, covering up their searches perfectly. Where would she hide it if she were a villain? She stares at a beautiful painting of a young girl and it clicks. Her hands slide around the painting and she feels it, a switch. She pulls out the mobile hacking device from her suit, causing Wes' eyes to bulge. Paul snaps,

"Keep on guard."

She quickly hacks the alarm she knew would be there. Not ten seconds later, the painting smoothly opens and a safe is present. Rosa sets to work, knowing one wrong move would set off another alarm. Only five minutes to go. Rosa sighs, but keeps going. Dawn knows that this lock is difficult from how expensive the system looks. Paul is still rummaging through drawers. Then Dawn notices a small box hidden behind a stack of high papers. She reads the label,

"Prototype."

She listens, but can't hear any sounds of a trap. The lid swings open and a pipe bomb sits within the box. She doesn't touch it, having smelt the mass amount of gunpowder. This small bomb could blow up most of the city. A bigger bomb, like the suspicious people were talking about, would destroy all of Kanto. Rosa manages to open the safe door and loads of paper flies out, revealing loads of bomb plans. Dawn doesn't waste any time,

"Reporting in. Evidence of a bomb and a prototype."

Debonte responds back, much to Dawn's surprise.

"Sending troops in now. Keep yourself safe, you're armed?"

"I didn't give them weapons, Debonte!"

"I 'borrowed' some." Dawn says, the awful memories of the dead man in her mind.

She's worse than the drunk driver, who only got community service. She's worse than the car company with the default, who only paid a fine of 100,000 pokedollars. What is the difference between them and her? They helped kill a life, she took a life voluntarily. They grab their silenced weapons and wait in the room, more nervous than they had been before. Dawn is a nervous wreck and Rosa looks at her concerned.

"You okay, Ghost?" Rosa asks, with a small smile.

"She killed her first person." Paul solemnly replies, as grumpy as usual.

Wes and Rosa give her pitying looks, filled with understanding.

She hadn't thought that everyone else had probably hurt another in their line of duty. Dawn hears the sound of the door handle turning before everyone else. She raises her weapon and with extreme accuracy she fires the gun through the thin door. She easily holds the gun still, the recoil not affecting her much. There is no scream, but there is a thud. Everyone knew that meant an instant death and that put Dawn more at ease, atleast they didn't suffer a lot.

"Ever shot a gun before?" Wes asks, his voice curious.

Dawn whispers, "This is my second time...and the second person to die."

They could see the upset on Dawn's face. She is too stricken with grief to hide it. Rosa tries to cheer her up,

"Well, I have been shooting since I was 6 and I would do anything to have an aim like that."

Dawn smiles slightly, but she doesn't feel any better.

"Evacuate the building; it's going up in flames. Shoot any Palkia gang members on sight. Go!" Lucas' voice sounds over the screaming and shooting.

That's when the alarm sounds. The alarm that Lucas had delayed by an hour. Paul opens the door slowly and they make a break for it. Rosa notices a grunt running in their direction, running from the PBI troops. His eyes widen as Rosa shoots her gun without a second thought. The bullet grazes his side, but not enough to injure him.

"Damn!"

Dawn's hands move on their own and it takes less than a second before her gun fires, hitting the retreating grunt in the centre of his heart. Rosa smiles a thanks. Even Paul can't hide the look of surprise on his face. It's hard not to believe Dawn when she says she isn't perfect. She can do everything, so why does she not believe she is the most perfect among them? Three. Three dead men. She feels a gap widing in her chest and she has to take shallow breathes to supply her body enough oxygen to keep moving. She isn't tired, so why is her body shutting down? They notice a person and Dawn instantly sees a fairly small PBI logo on his helmet that she can see from around thirty metres away. She runs faster and the man raises his gun, before a voice screams down his earpiece. Paul runs past, showing his PBI badge in a flash. Dawn hadn't even thought to bring hers. They manage to get outside the blazing building and Dawn feels faint, her vision starting to go blurry. She tries to step forward, but she slips and almost falls on her face. Almost, because Paul is there to catch her. And everything goes black.


	9. Chapter 9

She is in Paul's truck, laying down. Her feet and legs on the passenger seat and her head in his lap. She ignores the redness creeping onto her face and notices she is dressed in her normal clothes.

"Serena and Rosa changed your clothes, they left your hacking device and badge in the back pocket. Your weapons are in your bag, only for self defence outside and in missions, unless told differently."

Dawn nods, suffering a splitting headache, she tries to sit up, but Paul pushes her back down onto his lap. She sighs and moves to lay more comfortably. If she sits up now, she might faint again, which is why Paul doesn't want her to sit up. The drive is freakishly long and Dawn gets bored easily. She stares up at him, watching him drive. He looks so serious, even when he's driving. He looks at her with his onyx eyes and she feels a thump in her heart. Was that because he scared her? Her eyes drift away from the scorching eyes and she finds the radio station. Her hands manage to reach it and she turns on the radio. The soft tunes of a country song play through the car, causing Paul to grit his teeth. But he doesn't turn it off and Dawn smiles as she falls asleep. Paul nudges her awake, when they arrive at the boarding house, and she slowly opens her eyes, letting out a big yawn. She stumbles out the truck, tripping over the blanket wrapped around her. Thankfully, Paul is there to catch her again and she removes the blanket, throwing it back into the truck. Gary hears the sound of the truck in the massive driveway and excuses himself from the movie to open the door. The door opens to reveal a tired Dawn, who keeps yawning. She desperately tries not to cry in front of her cousin and excuses herself to get changed into her pyjamas.

"She slept in the truck, so she's out of it." Paul says, watching her go with worried eyes.

"Okay. Get changed and join the rest of us in the living room." Gary says, a sound of authority in his voice.

Paul just nods and walks to his room to get changed.

* * *

Dawn makes it into her room before she collapses against the shut door, tears falling from her tearful eyes. The deaths of the three grunt fresh in her mind. Why did she shoot the gun at the defenceless men? The one behind the door may have had the gun, but he might have had. Who made her able to choose who lives and who dies? She feels a distraught yell in her throat, but she manages to restrain it. She can feel her hands clawing into her arms, small amounts of blood escape her wounds. It's hard, but she manages to stand up with her heavy body. She mindlessly changes into her pyjamas, her mind having become numb. No thoughts pass through her empty head and she moves like a zombie to the living room. Everyone else is there, sitting in their usual seats. She sits next to Paul in a daze and curls up in the corner of the loveseat as small as possible. Paul tries to keep a worried look off his face, but he can't. After an hour of the movie, Dawn is still sat like that. She couldn't recall the names or events of the movie, staring at it with blank eyes. Ash pulls out his phone when a grin emerges. He exclaims,

"Oh my arceus! Check this out."

Misty scolds him for having his phone out on movie night, but she reads it out loud,

"Second-in-command commander of the Palkia gang gunned down in a PBI raid."

Dawn shrivels up even more, but only Paul notices her peculiar behaviour. Misty continues,

"Earlier this evening, while raiding the base of the Palkia gang in Viridian city after confirmed posession of bomb plans and a prototype, the second commander was gunned down by a member of squad 0, suspected to be teen agents operating in the western Kanto areas. Ghost, the codename of the newest squad 0 member, is said to have shot the commander through the brain as he opened the door to squad 0's location. Not only displaying concern for their comrades, but also a killer aim. The menace of the Palkia gang is weakened, but not for long. And just who is this Ghost?"

They all looks relieved at each other, the Palkia gang is a massive threat in western Kanto, while the Lugia gang is an even bigger threat in eastern Kanto. All but Dawn, who avoids their eyes. What would happen if she told them that she is Ghost? That she is a PBI agent? They'd probably throw her out and the eyes of the paparazzi would be on her, the PBI having closed their doors. The movie is still playing, so she can't leave. She tries to call up into a smaller ball, but Paul angrily taps her on her shoulder, bringing her mind back. She looks up at the onyx eyes, shining from the light of the television screen. She stretches out her hurting muscles and sits in a more comfortable position. But, in the back of her mind she can see herself holding the gun, firing at the three victims.

* * *

It is Thursday and Dawn gets out of math class, sighing in relief. Miss. Potter had fired question after question at her. They were tricky and really tested her, even though she got them all right. She starts walking, only to be tapped on the shoulder. She turns around to see Barry. His face shows happiness. She smiles simply at him and Barry begins talking.

"Hey Dawn. Could you help me with maths at lunch? No one in my class wants to help me. How about the library?"

That's a lie, but she nods anyway. Being able to detect emotions and lies in normal conversation drives her mad, but it's a curse she has to live with. She says her goodbyes and heads swiftly to the Sakura tree. But she stops after a few steps. She turns around to a stone column behind her and Paul steps out, pissed off.

"You knew I was there?" He asks, annoyed.

"Not until I started walking, your heat temperature increased and you brushed your shoe against the stone. Also, I can smell your scent from here." Dawn says, trying not to blush at the weird things she said.

Paul almost laughs, "Remind me to never get on the wrong side of you. But seriously, nothing good is going to come from helping Barry with his maths homework."

"I know, but I know what it feels like to almost fail subjects," Dawn whispers sadly.

* * *

 _Dawn puts her report card on the table. She is only 6 years old, but she already has to make her own food. Her mother and father are shouting in the living room. She knew her father wouldn't hurt her, but her mother would shout at her for her low grades. She would always say it is because of her home environment, but that would only enrage her mother. She didn't hate her mother, because she knew she cared. She only shouted because she is angry with her father. That isn't an excuse for low grades though. Her mother walks into the room, fuming, before looking at the report card._

 _"What lame results! You're more like your drunk, dumb father than I thought! You didn't get any of my genes, if I hadn't given birth to you, I would think that you're someone else's daughter!"_

 _Dawn's mother raised her hand and the sting causes Dawn to yelp. That is and will be the only time that her mother would ever hit her. She runs to her room hastily, pulling out all her textbooks that are too hard to read. But, her 6 year old self somehow manages to teach herself the hard words. Her parents hadn't bothered teaching her anything. She'd taught herself how to cook. She'd taught herself how to read. She'd taught herself how to ignore the constant shouting. Yet she was told she wasn't good enough by everyone but her parents. By her 'friends' and the entire student body of Twinleaf Elementary. Even herself. She needs to be perfect, otherwise she is worthless to everyone around her._

* * *

Dawn walks away from Paul, the memories flooding back her. Paul doesn't follow, something he regrets immediately. Engineering is really awkward and they work separately, something that notices. And like the teachers at Jubilife elementary, he doesn't say anything. Dawn almost laughs, if everyone wasn't a coward to ask if something was wrong, she would be happier. And that makes her wonder about the butterfly effect. If her mother hadn't been hit by the car...if her mother hadn't grabbed her and ran when she was eight...if she hadn't tried to be perfect...if her father had loved her mother...if she haven't been born at all. The chances of her living in Kanto are minuscule, yet here she is. And that chance is what makes Dawn wonder if things could have been different. But, she knows. She knows that these events happened for a reason.

Dawn walks to the library, noticing Barry in a secluded part of the library, staring blankly at his maths work. Dawn moves so silently, that no sound emits from her feet. She sits down just as quietly and when Barry looks to his side, he jumps. This causes a faint smile to appear on her lips. Dawn, wishing to distract herself, throws herself into her teaching. Barry quickly gets the maths she explains. He's not as bad at maths as he says he is. She ignores the hints he drops, such as putting his hand on hers and 'accidently' touching her hand as they both reach to turn over the page. She could do loads better flirting, but she wouldn't waste it on Barry. Underneath his nice guy act is a mean guy that has a high possibility to abuse and take advantage of her. Lunch passes by gruellingly slow. Thankfully the bell goes and she is surprised when Barry kisses her on the cheek. She grins, deciding to have a bit of fun. She leans in, flipping her hair and batting her eyelashes. Most girls would look foolish, but Dawn is one of the few who could pull it off. Her good looks contributed greatly too. Barry's eyes grow dark and hungry. His hands nearing her waist. She pretends to remove something from his hair and apologises,

"Sorry for that, you had something in your hair," She replies, smiling with a cute expression.

Barry just stands stunned as she hurries to her music classroom. She laughs silently, then she sees Paul behind some books. Only she would notice him and he knows this. He joins her quickly and raises his eyebrows.

"Mind explaining that?" He asks.

"He tries to act like he is a nice guy, but that act doesn't work on me." Dawn says.

"Erm...I meant the flirting?" Paul whispers, suddenly embarrassed for actually having to say the word out loud.

"To lower his guard; it showed his true nature. Why? You jealous?" Dawn teases, more like her usual self.

"Pfft, no." Paul denies, his face an emotional mask.

Dawn had learnt how to flirt from her mother's best friend from when they lived in Snowpoint, when she was 13. She quickly picked it up, wanting to become perfect at it like she wanted to be at everything else. She had fun flirting with boys, only to turn away before they tried to kiss her. They would refer to her as a heartbreaker, but she was still too young to learn about feelings and love, so she didn't realise what she was doing was wrong. She knows its wrong now, but she still hasn't learned about love. Well if everyone knew then they'd all have perfect relationships. How can we love someone one second only to hate them the next?

* * *

Dawn sits in music, trying to decide whether a C or a B sharp would be the best option in this case. She feels the chair next to her move and Rosa sits next to her. Rosa is in her music class?

"Hey Ghost. I know it's tough after killing someone, but you have to deal with it. No one who works in the PBI hasn't done something they didn't want to do or something they don't regret. We have all experienced what you are, so remember that we're here for you," Rosa whispers, so only Dawn can hear.

Dawn nods, appearing not to have been affected. But inside, her body gives a sigh of relief. Three men had died, but loads of lives had been saved. It doesn't make the situation any different, but the problem seems lighter on her chest. She decides to scrap her entire composition, her mind brimming with ideas.

"Okay class," Jade calls. "Get into groups of four and learn the best instrumental composition of the four before tomorrow. Go!"

Rosa and Leaf instantly bounce to her side, Paul joining reluctantly, mumbling something about damaging his image. Me and Rosa share a look and laugh. When does Paul ever care about his image? They read each others composition one at a time. They read Dawn's composition last and once they read the first line, Rosa yells,

"This one!"

Dawn blushes slightly, why hers? Rosa quickly copies the composition on three other score sheets. She hands them to Dawn, who highlights the parts for each of them on their sheets. She had never liked composing, but it is another of the things she has become good at. She has already memorised it, so she can focus on homework and the engineering project today. The music bells goes and she heads to gym. Instead of volleyball, it's dodge ball today because they have a cover teacher. Dawn hates dodge ball. Not because she is bad at it, but because everyone only cares for themselves. They would attack without a care for their team mates. Groups 1 and 2 stand on one half of the court, while groups 3 and 4 stand on the other. She sees May and Drew on the other side, giving her looks that her perceptive skills determine as 'guilty' looks. She can already guess who is first on their hit list. She can even notice someone's muscles, eyes and expression working in harmony and can predict their moves to a certain degree. But, she hasn't come close to mastering this yet. Barry is on her team and she can feel his gaze on her, daring her to look. The soft volleyball sized balls are placed at the line and it begins. Dawn and Paul are the first to reach the line and grab a ball, retreating to a more safe location. She notices a slight twitch in Drew's shoulder and she dodges a ball without appearing to watch, by doing a total backflip. She spins to gain momentum and instantly hits Drew with a fast throw, with enough force to cause a sizeable bruise. N and Hilda quickly get out and so does Ursula, Brianna, Barry and Ash. Rebecca just stands in the corner, acting like a spoilt child. Brock hits her out and she squeals much louder than necessary. She gets a glance from Gary, to her joy. But unlike the concerned look she wanted, it's an annoyed one. Gary and Leaf both dodge two balls and send them back in unison, taking out the unsuspecting Lyra and Ethan. Paul is getting most of the other team out and I use my chances to hit the balls heading for my team mates, which I make look easy. But everyone knows that hitting a moving object at such accuracy and speed is as hard as trying to ride a rhydon backwards without a saddle. Her team easily wins, to her delight. She can hear Barry bragging, but he got out straight away, so it doesn't have much of an effect on the class.

* * *

Dawn blends in with the crowd of girls leaving the changing room, passing by the waiting Barry. She passes him and escapes the crowd, only to be noticed.

"Hey Dawn!"

She speeds up and hears Barry running to catch up with her. She then bumps into something in front of her. She recognises the scent. Paul. Barry halts a few feet away. Thankfully the hall is empty, saving a public argument. But this means that there are no witnesses if things go bad. Barry's hand grips around her wrist painfully. He tries to tug her away, but she feels Paul's arms hug around her waist, preventing her from moving. She manages to stand despite more sparks ricocheting between her and Paul. Barry lets go, annoyed, and Dawn can already see a bruise forming. Paul drops his arms, but he keeps his hands on her waist in a protective position. Barry growls,

"Competition, eh?"

"I don't know what you're on about, Barry." Paul says, avoiding Barry's eyes.

Dawn looks between them, what is going on?

"Who are you protecting her from? The big bad wolf?" Barry jokes, glaring at Paul with a cold glare.

Dawn shudders, if looks could kill Barry would be ten times dead in his grave.

"Guys like you, who go after girls for a challenge and only to sleep with them before you crush their hearts." Paul says, saying each word slowly and threateningly.

"Oh, you mean men like your father. It's a good thing he drove off a cliff, otherwise your mother wouldn't have learnt how much of a player he was. Maybe she wouldn't have shot herself in the head."

"Shut up!" Paul growls, restraining himself from punching the bastard.

"That strike a nerve?" Barry laughs tauntingly, edging closer to Dawn and Paul.

Dawn can feel her blood pressure rising and she does something she has never done before...she talks back. Instead of sitting as the students of the sinnoh schools call her names and hit her and she takes it, she decides to give him a piece of her mind.

"Atleast he isn't the son of a policeman who arrests innocent people to make a paycheck." Dawn says, staring Barry straight in his eyes; Dawn almost laughs, maybe reading the news isn't such a bad thing after all. "Atleast he doesn't go from women to women looking for a challenge or a new pretty face to add to his wall. Atleast he actually cares, unlike you. You want the perfect me, when all I can offer is the real me. I'm no more perfect than anyone else, but I god damn try to be. Because, the last promise I made to my mother was to be perfect for her. And I can't make her anymore promises. I can't tell her goodbye. I can't even tell her I love her. And you know what, it hurts. A lot. But no matter how fucked up the world is, I try for her. So what if my father is in an asylum! So what if he abused my mother and was an alcoholic! He loved me more than any other being on this godforsaken planet and he stayed with her for me! Which is more than what you would do! I'm less perfect than what people think. But they only see the perfect side of me because the real side scares them. I don't need a knight in shining armour to make all my problems go away and fight the dragon for me. I can deal with my own problems. We all try to hide behind a wall or a mask, but it makes us too weak to fight back. So stop pretending to be something you're not!"

Dawn stops shouting, realising that tears were sliding down her face. She can see horror and mixed emotions on Barry's face. Horror. Anger. Disgust. Pain. Pity. Sympathy. Understanding. The array of emotions settle on the last, him knowing that he has made loads of mistakes, but this one is the worst. He turns to leave, the silence heavy in the air. Dawn is pulled into a tight hug and she sobs against Paul's chest, her tears staining his shirt. Barry looks back at her as he walks away, seeing her in a new light. She may not be the perfect girl he wanted, but she had a sense of realism and fire to her that all the other girls find as a weakness. He looks Paul in the eyes and smiles apologetically. Why fight a battle you've already lost? And with that, Barry vanishes from sight.


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry if I don't update for a few days. I have mock exams next week that I need to take and prepare for. And for those who are wondering, no, Barry hasn't committed suicide.**

* * *

Dawn stands wrapped in Paul's arms for several minutes more. This leaves plenty of time for Paul to put together what she'd said. Okay, her mother is dead, her father is in an asylum and he abused her mother, but he loves his daughter. It sounds like one of those stories you read on the internet, but Paul knows she is telling the truth. His father may have slept with loads of woman, but he loved his wife. His wife had been having a ten-year affair, something Paul had kept to himself. How can you love two people at once? How can you love someone, yet you sleep with other women? Dawn finally emerges from the cocoon of warmth and walks to classroom 23, sniffling. They arrive ten minutes late and everyone notices Dawn's puffy eyes. Rosa walks over,

"Hey Dawn, you alright?"

"Yep," Dawn smiles, stunning Paul into silence.

Being asked if she was okay, made all her problems less problematic. It felt as if the world's problems had been lifted from her shoulders. To most people it would be a daily occurrence, but to Dawn it means the world. Sometimes the only way needed to cheer someone up, is to ask them if they're okay. Sometimes that cures someone better than medicine, food or a blanket could. Rosa smiles at her and tells her,

"We have training on Thursday nights!"

Training? As if to answer her unspoken question, Gerald opens a locked cupboard, revealing a set of stairs. This feels like something out of a cheesy spy movie or fanfiction, but she follows the winding stairs. She enters a massive room filled with extensive equipment. Shooting ranges. Assault course. Dummies. A moving training platform. A sparring floor. A computer based simulator. Even punching bags.

Gerald speaks up,

"Let's teach Dawn the equipment today and we'll do proper training next week. You deserve a break after yesterday anyway. Good job, Ghost."

Dawn tries to smile, but fails. Gerald becomes quiet and Rosa leads her to the shooting range, trying to keep her busy.

"Okay, take a gun and shoot the material with the target on. Don't worry, we replace used and unreusable equipment every week anyway."

Dawn nods and pulls out her silenced gun from a concealed part of her bag. She puts her bag down on the floor, slowly. She can feel everyone's eyes on her. Now she isn't in a mission, she feels less pressured, but also less accurate. Maybe being in life-risking situations makes it easier to do outrageous things. She aims the gun with an unbelievably steady aim and the first shot hits through the bulls-eye. She manages to counteract the recoil and manages to re-aim within a second, firing it again. This shot also makes it through the bulls-eye too. She turns to look at Rosa again, who is displaying clear disbelief. Rosa quickly shakes it off and takes her to the assault course. Serena takes off her blazer and skirt, putting on shorts underneath her skirt first. She puts on her trainers too, ready to show Dawn what to do. Serena manages to get through the fairly large assault course, stumbling on a few obstacles. She isn't the most athletic and she prefers undercover missions, but she does set a good time of 4 mins 32 seconds, topping fifth on the assault course. She reads the scoreboard,

"Paul - 2 mins 57 seconds

Rosa - 3 mins 23 seconds

Wes - 3 mins 25 seconds

Lucas- 3 mins 52 seconds

Serena- 4 mins 32 seconds"

Dawn takes off her blazer and puts on her trainers, but she doesn't have anything under her skirt, embarrassingly. She sprints to the course, hearing the ping of the mechanism as she crosses a tripwire, causing the timer to start. Okay. Rock wall. She jumps up the wall as far as she can and grabs onto the holds, swiftly launching herself onto higher grips. She quickly gets to the top and jumps off, rolling. Okay. Moving shapes. The first one goes up and down, the second goes side to side and the other moves franticly, with only hole in the direct middle. Dawn slides under the first and without stopping, she slides past the second too. Then, she dives through the last, quickly putting both arms out does a walkover to get her on her feet. Wall run. Dawn sprints and quickly clears it, then does the monkey bars/ climbing frame with good precision. She dodges thrown soft balls the size and speed of bullets from a firing machine. before she crosses the line.

"Beep. 2 mins 15 seconds. Enter name."

Dawn enters her name, breathing heavily. Last time she checked, she was a PBI officer, not a breaking and entering specialist. She walks to the next exercise, hearing the other's footsteps following her. She approaches a dummy, staring at it inquisitively. A weapon training ground? She grabs a blunt weapon the size of her switchblade and starts to hitting the dummy, pretending it's attacking her. If anyone else is in the room, they would think the blunette is stupidly attacking at air. The others know what she's doing and watch fascinated as she practises. Gerald can only smile at the new diamond in the rough that he had found. She has no experience, but she has raw talent. She's still shook up about the mission, but she still managed to pick up the gun at the shooting range.

* * *

Dawn sits, tired after all the exercise. She had aced the moving platform exercise. She didn't get to practise sparring because everyone says that they are tired, even though they haven't done anything. Only the simulator and punching bags left. She slowly steps onto the 'stage' thing and the computer stirs. She reads through the list and picks a blending-in exercise, level 1. Around her, the landscape changes and she walks in place, the scenery changing as if she is actually walking. She can spot snipers, their red beams flitting from person to person. She pulls her hood up, grabbing at nothing. She walks at the same pace as everyone else, conversing with a friendly farm's boy that only she could see and hear. The others stare at her, with her earphones on, as she walks on the spot towards an unknown location. Each mission setting is randomised each time, so they have a general gist of what her mission is like. She passes it and receives a bonus score for 0% suspicion. Maybe level 1 is too easy. Only punching bags to go and she feels a bit bothered at how easy some of this equipment is. She gets into her martial arts stance and warms up with a few low and high kicks, keeping her standing leg strong and unwavering. Wait...isn't she wearing a skirt? She blushes a bit and turns so that her back is to the audience. She lands a soft punch in the centre of the bag, ducking to dodge it as it sways back towards her, then moves to the side and lands a skillfully timed roundhouse kick. She then leaves the punching bag, tired of training. It would probably be more fun if everyone else joined in. The others seem fed up too and Gerald finally announces that they can go home. Dawn smiled, she could tell that everyone loved the few missions they did receive. Those missions had made squad 0 pretty well known by the public. She changes out of her trainers and walks past Rosa and Serena.

"I love the black lace underwear, it looks amazing." Serena says, complimenting Dawn's fashion sense and not feeling embarrassed about mentioning it at all.

"Erm...thanks," Dawn mumbles, heavily embarrassed.

She blushes and waves goodbye, wanting to go to bed and sleep for an eternity. She follows Paul to his truck and climbs in, yawning. She leans her head against the seat and lets the thumping engine lull her to sleep.

Instead of waking her, Paul carries her to the house. She has a relaxed expression on her face, something that is rare. He opens the door, going past May and Drew.

"She asleep?" May asks, her hand entwined with Drew's.

"Yeah," Paul replies simply.

"We're rooting for you," May winks, smiling happily.

"What do you mean?" Paul asks, curious.

"Oh, nothing." Drew says, his other hand raised in a surrender.

Paul knows something is going on, but he ignores it and lays Dawn on her bed in her bedroom. In the kitchen, May and Drew are conversing with Misty and Gary.

"It's so obvious!" Misty smiles enthusiastically.

"But, we don't know for sure." Gary says doubtfully, staring at Leaf, who is delicately drawing on a canvas, through the patio door.

May just rolls her eyes, "I guess we'll root for you too."

Gary sighs, "Don't bother. She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you, Gary."

* * *

May, Drew and Misty walk to the living room, joining Ash, who is playing video games. Gary begins to walk towards the room, but he stops. Leaf sits, staring at him carefully, as if pondering something about him. He stays still for several seconds, watching her, before he goes and sits next to her.

"Hey Leaf...erm, are you okay?" He asks, staring at her nervously.

"Maybe if you stop staring at me."

"Sorry," Gary apologises, flustered.

What is happening to him? Where has his arrogant self gone recently?

"You're acting like you use to do when we were younger." Leaf says, a slight smile at the edge of her lips.

"You haven't changed much, Leaf. I guess that's one of your good qualities. You're as driven and determined as ever. Would you mind helping me with dinner? It's my turn and you know I'm awful at it."

Leaf nods simply, letting Gary help her to her feet. She ignores his hands lingering by her waist and walks into the kitchen. Well, more like storms in.

Everyone else is in bed, but Leaf is still up, playing the guitar sadly. Gary isn't in bed either, waiting until the house goes quiet before walking outside onto the patio. Leaf looks up at him, her hand stops strumming the strings. Gary sits down next to her again. Why she always loved this part of the patio, he never knew. He and Leaf would spend hours playing in the backyard of this house, that Grandfather Oak had bought when he was young. It hurt, looking at how strained their relationship is, compared to then.

"Hey Leaf...again."

"Why are you still up? You have football tomorrow afterschool."

"Well, you have swimming. So?" Gary smirks arrogantly.

"Fine. Gary, just shut up."

She begins playing again and the minutes tick by. It's ten minutes until midnight before Gary speaks again.

"Happy birthday, Leaf."

What? He remembered her birthday. She had only told him once, when they were both four. So how did he remember? He drops two wrapped up presents. Leaf only stares at them, before she opens the smallest to reveal a beautiful guitar pick with a leafeon it. As she opens the second, Gary begins to back away. He almost makes it and Leaf yells at him, her anger rising,

"A G-string, Gary?"

Gary flashes her his childish grin and runs to his room, laughing. Leaf watches him go, laughing at the boy's childishness. He did get her presents, even though one of them will be forever forgotten in her drawer of underwear. She picks up her guitar again, her old, faded premier ball patterned pick left on the patio floor as she grips the new one in her fingers. She smiles at it, memories flying through her head.

* * *

 _"Leaf!" Gary calls, his five-year old legs making him faster than her._

 _He rushes at her and they both fall into a patch of tall grass._

 _"I got you something!" He calls, his face still showing a childish grin._

 _"Get off me, Gary!" Leaf yells, still upset with the fact that Gary is older than her._

 _She is five today and Gary had to dampen the mood by telling her that his birthday was on the first of September. This meaning that he is older than her and also that he will be in her school academic year, which annoys her. Gary jumps off her and tries to help her stand up, but she wards away his help. She gets up by herself and her hands reach out to the small wrapped present in Gary's hand. She unwraps a small guitar pick, with a premier ball pattern. She stares at it and whispers,_

 _"Thank you. But you know I don't like presents..."_

 _"Then how about I get you a new pick for your next birthday?" Gary grins, not having thought the plan through and Leaf knows that he will soon forget about it._

 _"I don't expect any other present until I'm sixteen, but you'll forget by then." Leaf says stubbornly._

 _"I'll get you presents until you're over one hundred!"_

 _"You know I can't count to a hundred, stop making fun of me." Leaf says, feeling terribly upset._

 _"I'm not making fun of you, Green. I'll love you forever!" Gary says childishly, not knowing what that entails._

 _But Leaf does and she just stares at him with shocked eyes._

 _"No, you won't!" Leaf accuses, storming off._

 _"Wait! Leaf! You need to meet my cousin, Dawn, but I call her Pink!"_

 _Leaf turns back, curious. Just who is this Pink?_

 _"Wait for me, Blue!" She yells after him, running after him as fast as she could._

* * *

Leaf smiles at the memory, her hands playing a simple, yet sweet melody. It is the first song she had learnt. She'd been influenced by Gary's guitar playing skills and had decided to learn the guitar with him. Not only was it the first song she had learned, it had been the first duet she had played. She loves music, because of him. The stars shine beautifully in the sky and she knows it's time for bed. She smiles as she walks to her room. She doesn't love Gary anymore, atleast that's what she tells herself. But she can't help but feel respect for him. He'd been her only friend and stood against everyone who bullied her.

* * *

Dawn sits up, stretching her limbs. It's only 3 am, but she has a feeling that she fell asleep for a while. Then she realises she is still in her uniform. She quickly straightens it out and brushes her hair. She steps out of her room and into the cool hallway, preparing herself for Friday. She hears a movie playing in the living room. She notices the head of purple hair. Why does Paul spend so much time watching movies? She quietly sits next to him; he notices her when she grabs some of his popcorn. He tries to get it back, but she quickly shoves it into her mouth. She swallows and sticks her tongue out at him. Paul rolls his eyes sarcastically and continues watching the horror movie intently. Dawn starts laughing at the fake blood squirting several feet out of the recently killed body. She pulls her feet underneath her and gets a little more comfortable.

"I started placing the foundation for the house for the project." Paul says, breaking the silence.

"Thanks!" Dawn smiles, hugging Paul with so much force that they tumble over. "Sorry!"

She has literally just fallen onto him, reminding her of their first meeting. She manages to right herself, blushing like crazy. Paul doesn't bother getting up and keeps laying down, watching the movie. Dawn sees his eyes closed and a less serious expression appears on his face as he falls asleep. She smiles and reaches to put a loose strand of his hair behind his ear, when he grabs her wrist and pulls her down next to him. She can feel her back pressed against his chest, his arms hugging her. He is still sleeping to Dawn's amazement! Dawn blushes, but she knows what to get Paul for his birthday! A massive teddy bear! She can't move, so she gives up. The horror movie is hilarious, atleast to her. There are no reactions from Paul because he is fast asleep, his steady breath cool on her neck. She was super close to going absolutely crazy and she tries to focus on the movie more. It is about 4 am before he stirs. His breath on her neck becomes more irregular and she can hear him breath more deeply. He lays there for a bit longer, making Dawn go on edge. He pulls her closer, his face buried in her hair, yet his lips still seem to touch her neck. She stops herself from taking in a sharp intake of air. Is this revenge for when she tried to get him to drop her? His arms finally slacken and Dawn sprints off to her room, her face bright red. Paul just stares after her, smirking. Ah, revenge is sweet.

* * *

Misty passes the living room at 3:30am, noticing blue and purple hair on the couch. She almost dies from cuteness overload, but she continues to the kitchen, grabbing herself a snack. The stars outside look beautiful. You could rarely see stars in Cerulean city, which the city's haze would block out. She stares out the window, watching the twinkling of the stars for several minutes. Turning back, she looks into the living room to notice that Dawn is gone. She notices Paul sat on the couch, staring into space. Sitting on another couch, she addresses him,

"You okay?"

"Er...erm...sorry, yeah I am."

Paul apologised? And he isn't thinking properly? Misty stares at him in confusion, why is he acting strange? Is it Dawn?

"Where did Dawn go? I thought she was in here with you," Misty checks her watch. "An hour ago."

"Oh, she went back to her room...just some revenge," Paul says, smirking to himself slightly.

Another confused look. Then Misty asks,

"What did you do?"

"I just got her back for something she did to me. That's it."

"What did you do?" Misty demands a second time.

"Okay, I pressed my lips to her neck. She did it to me on Tuesday, so I decided to get her back."

"So, you basically kissed her on her neck? Have you kissed her anywhere else?"

"Just her cheek to stop Barry harassing her." Paul asks, suspicious as to why Misty would want to know that.

"And are you sure there are no feelings with this flirting?"

"I'm leaving." Paul says, leaving a disappointed Misty by herself.

As he walks out of the living room, he thinks about what Misty is implying. He doesn't like Ghost. He doesn't like her soft, beautiful, blue hair or her sparkling, soulful blue eyes. He is definitely not flirting with her! Then he remembers how he had kissed the top of Dawn's head too, when she was sleeping. But he isn't going to tell Misty that too. Misty has made him question everything about his relationship with Dawn. She doesn't like him and he doesn't like her, right?

Right?


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm in the middle of my mock exams right now and I got bored of revising. So, I decided, why not write a new chapter? I'm thinking of posting a new chapter every Sunday from now on, so I have enough time to revise for my exams in a few weeks. Thanks for reading**

* * *

Dawn puts on her makeup and fixes her hair, which was messed up from her little 'lie down'. She spends ages packing her bag, still lost in thought. She quickly grabs some toast from the kitchen and sighs when she hears Gary leave the drive. Damn. She searches the house and finds the only person left in the house, Paul. Who, to her embarrassment is just about to put his school shirt on in his room.

"Get ready quicker! I need a ride!" She yells, quickly ducking out of his room. It is different that what she had imagined. Instead of the all black she thought it would be, it is an aquatic blue colour and the colours seem to compliment each other. There are books everywhere and the room has an airy sort of feel. Paul rushes out of his room with his already packed bag. He calls back to her,

"You ready, or what? It's already 7 am!"

He seems more irritable today and Dawn wonders if before has anything to do with it. She jumps into the truck and the silence to school is deafening.

"Erm...Paul? Are you angry at me?" Dawn asks when they are nearly there.

"No." Paul says simply. "I'm not mad at you."

Dawn sighs in relief and turns on the radio to a station that they both don't seem to mind. Paul seems to relax as they get closer to school, to Dawn's relief. They arrive on time and she heads to computing, Paul mirroring her steps.

* * *

Leaf gets out of bed, reading the clock as 6 am. She dresses quickly in her school uniform, not bothering to tame her hair. She grabs some bacon from Misty and heads outside with her, hoping that she could catch the bus today. But, Gary is standing by his car, waiting for her. Misty gives her an apologetic look before getting into her own car. Gary literally drags her to his car and they drive to school, throwing pick-up lines and insults between them. Though, Leaf uses more of the latter. Gary opens the door for her and she gets out of the car and decides to go to her first lesson, before she is stopped by a nervous-looking Silver.

"Hey Silver, what's the matter?"

"I..erm...wanted to know if you wanted to go on a date with me tonight?" Silver asks, trying not to look bothered.

"Sure." Leaf says, to hell with it.

The quicker she forgets about Gary, the better.

"Okay, I'll pick you up from your house at 7 pm sharp."

Leaf smiles after him, waiting for him to go out of sight before it falters. This is for the best, she keeps telling herself.

* * *

May and Drew sit in geography, why has they picked this class? They had no idea. May tries to pay attention but Drew keeps whispering into her ear.

"You look beautiful today, like every other day. I'm sure you would look beautiful even after months of living in a rainforest. Not that I'd ever leave you there. I'll never let you get away, May."

May gives him a look and whispers, "Even when I need to go to the bathroom?"

"Even then," he whispers, his breath cool on her ear, making her shiver.

"Ewww," She responds quietly.

"Miss. Maple or should I call you Mrs. Hayden now? Care to give me an example of a lower river course feature?"

May blushes crazily and manages to respond.

"Erm...Delta?"

She isn't repulsed about the idea of marrying him, Drew notices, his grin widening. Too bad that he'll have to wait until she turns 18. He sighs, putting a perfect rose on her notebook.

* * *

Dawn walks into computing, smiling at Gerald. Everyone still stares at her, even though it is Friday and the new girl effect should have worn off by now. She sits down, logging on within seconds. The board reads the instructions for today's lesson and she whizzes through it and the extension work. So, she has time to practise the hacking mini game on the highest difficulty again. It only takes her a few minutes and she quickly gets tired of it.

"Want to play a multiplayer match?" Pauls asks emotionlessly from his seat next to her.

She nods and watches as Wolf invites her to a game on the site. She grins, keeping her eyes on the screen as Paul types in codes for his defence. She is the attacker this round and Paul has five minutes to make a defence system, not like it will stop her. Finally, the game starts and both start typing, Dawn attacking while Paul defending. Dawn types faster and manages to disable several codes before Paul can even type in one. She easily wins and Paul sighs, why did he even try? How she had learnt to hack like that, Paul wishes he knew. The bell goes and she walks out quickly, leaving Paul staring after her. Dawn steps out of her gym class and heads straight to track, not bothering to get unchanged and then re-changed. Today is as boring as the last. All she does is laps, but she manages to see the small figures of people on the football field. This keeps her entertained for a while, well, when she is actually facing the field atleast. Their first game is next Tuesday night from 6-8pm. Dawn is excited, but she knows Gary wouldn't like her being out there in the dark and cold. He is so protective over his cousin, which makes her life slightly more boring. If he knew what she really does for her academic club, she'd never step outside alone again. She hears her feet pound on the hard track. She hears someone sprint behind her and she keeps calm, not being forced to run faster, which generally happens to unexpecting runners. She turns back and looks at the person trying to catch up with her. Someone in their third year, while she is only in her second. They sprint past her and they give her the most competitive grin. Dawn doesn't think, she just sprints. She isn't going to be upfronted by a third year. She gains speed. She knows that this is their last lap and she can see the finishing line approaching. Only 200m to go. She flies, her feet hitting the floor twice as fast as the other sprinter's. Her leg strides increase and her breathing becomes deeper and faster in a default setting. The other sprinter tries to gain more speed, but their body is not capable of going faster. Dawn crosses about 10 seconds before the other, making her sigh.

"I guess you're as good as you say. If I gave you more speed up time, I would be much further behind. I guess my body can't deal with too many laps before a sprint," the third year laughs nervously.

Dawn smiles warmly, "You're a good runner. I had fun racing against you. Keep running and you'll win a few medals before you leave school. Just not in the races that I participate in," Dawn laughs cheekily, causing both her and the third year to laugh like crazy. They return to the changing room, where Dawn grabs her bags and catches a ride back with Paul, who seems really distracted today.

* * *

Leaf passes by Gary on the hallway, but she doesn't notice the pain in his eyes. He knows. He knows that Leaf is going on a date and he just hopes it doesn't go well, which makes him conflicted. He should want Leaf to do happy...but he didn't want her to be happy without him. Leaf storms down the hall, dressed in a beautiful black dress that suits her hourglass figure. She stands nervously around the door, waiting for the bell. Ring.

"Hi Silver," she smiles, as she leaves through the front door.

"You look beautiful tonight, Leaf." Silver says sweetly.

"Thanks, Silver," Leaf blushes slightly.

They drive to the restaurant in silence. It's a nice restaurant, near the beach at the south of Pallet town. It's only a twenty minute walk from the boarding house, but it feels like centuries away. She gets out of the car herself, much to her annoyance. She hates it when Gary opens the door for her, but she hates him more when he doesn't. Why is she evening thinking about Gary on her date? She shakes her head to clear it and steps into the restaurant with Silver, taking in the bright colours of red and silver. She sits down, assessing the menu intently. She doesn't like anything on this menu, she sighs. Gary would always find out the food preferences for his date and ring the restaurants, looking for a place with the right food for them. Why is she still thinking about him?

"I didn't know what food you like...so I picked this restaurant that does a load of different food."

"Yeah..." Leaf replies.

Not a single dish on the menu sounds appetizing, but she doesn't mention it.

"So I was...erm...wondering if you liked me?"

Leaf thinks about the question. Well, more like really thinks about it. Silver is a good guy with many friends, his best friends being Gold (Ethan) and Crystal (Lyra). But, did she like him? A little...but probably not like how Silver is implying. Why did she agree to go on a date with a person she didn't like that much? Is she this desperate? Maybe she'll turn out to be like Gary?...Gary?

* * *

 _"Gary? Do you remember Leaf, you met her when you were 1?" His Grandfather asks him._

 _"Yeah, I do! I gave her a daisy chain!" The three year old Gary chimes._

 _"Well, she is coming later today. Be nice to her, okay?"_

 _Gary nods, just as Leaf and her mother enter. He rushes up to Leaf, who shies away. Who is he? She wonders._

 _"Hi Leaf, it's Gary! Do you remember me?"_

 _"No..." Leaf responds, ducking behind her mother, who sends her and Gary into the garden. In the garden, Gary continues,_

 _"What? You don't remember the famous Gary Oak?"_

 _Leaf shakes her head, causing Gary to look at her in disbelief!_

 _"Remember, you said you'd marry me!"_

 _Leaf suddenly remembers the memory he is referring to. Did she really agree to that? She was only one after all and she hadn't been able to speak anything but baby language._

 _"I am going to marry you?"_

 _"Yeah, you said you would! And that we'll love each other forever!"_

 _Without warning, Gary pecks her on the lips in a childish kiss._

 _She smiles softly at the child, who is displaying a childish grin. He is so cute and childish, she thinks._

* * *

How could she be so stupid?

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"Sorry...I have to go. Sorry, Silver. I made a stupid mistake," she whispers to him, before sprinting out the restaurant, causing everyone to look at her.

Silver stares after her with wide eyes. What did he do? Leaf keeps running to the boarding house, literally carrying her heels now. The pavement digs into her heels, but she ignores the continuous pain. Her dress restricts her movements, but she manages to reach the house in fifteen minutes. She instantly knocks on the door, knowing it will be locked. Well, more like slam her fist against the rock-solid door.

Gary is about to go to the kitchen, as the clock reads 7:40. He wonders how Leaf's date is going; she should have just finished her meal by now. Gary hasn't eaten, doing homework instead, so he had decided to walk down into the kitchen and cook something for himself. KNOCK! A loud knock ricochets the door and Gary cautiously opens the door, expecting a tauros. He notices Leaf, who is ferociously out of breath, has discarded her heels on the ground and her dressed has ridden up to her mid-thigh. She looks like a beautiful mess to Gary. But, shouldn't she be on a date with Silver? Before he can say anything, she launches herself at him like a bullet. Her lips crash onto his lips, to his surprise. He instantly responds, pulling Leaf close. Why is she kissing him? Not that his is complaining. He roughly grips her waist, accidently tearing her black dress, revealing more of her skin. But she doesn't notice, her mind too focused on Gary's lips. Her hands are snaked around his neck. Their lips move in sync and Leaf invades Gary's mouth with her tongue, who doesn't have time to block her. Not that he'd want to. Gary stands shocked for a few seconds before he responds by fighting for dominance and failing. When did Leaf become so confident? She passionately kisses him before she pulls away, looking into Gary's beautiful eyes with hers.

"Hi, you miss me?" Leaf smiles cheekily, not knowing what to say.

Of all the things she could of said, she had to say that! Stupid. Stupid!

"Did you mean, I love you?" Gary smirks arrogantly, pulling her into a hug.

Leaf's breathing hitches in her throat and she nods before whispering into Gary's ear breathily,

"Yeah...I love you."

"So I can strum your g-string now?"

"No! Damn it Gary!"

Ash walks to the kitchen and notices Leaf and Gary in the entrance hall, who separated before he saw them hugging. He speaks his mind,

"Hey Leaf, why is your dress torn?...And why is your hair a mess?...Wait...You've just made out, haven't you?"

They don't respond for a second and Ash knows he's right. He runs through the house, yelling the news.

"What do we do?" Leaf asks, worried.

"Nothing, you have me to protect you from the bullies. For a price of course."

"Price?"

"Your heart in exchange for mine."

Gary and Leaf watch the stars, eating their dinner on the patio floor. A lasagne that they had both made. In a way, it is their first date. Leaf's dress is torn from before, but she doesn't care, as long as she has Gary to herself. The stars seem to glow brighter tonight and Leaf can see them reflected in Gary's eyes. How had she been so stupid as to pretend she didn't like him? Her mind was telling her one thing, while her heart was telling her another. She was stupid. She was only hurting herself and him because of her denial.

"So, you're my girlfriend?" Gary asks curiously, bringing her out of her thoughts.

Leaf giggles for reasons unknown to her and smiles,

"Of course, but I'll need to keep a tight leash on you. None of the other girls can have you."

"Not even a piece?" Gary asks jokingly.

"Definitely not. Didn't you say your heart belonged to me?" Leaf whispers lovingly, as she closes the gap between their lips.

Dawn sits on her bed, her hands ferociously typing away on her laptop. She hears Ash yell through the hall,

"Oh my arceus! Leaf and Gary were just making out!"

* * *

Dawn grins, she knew that it wouldn't be long. Wait...wasn't Leaf on a date? Did she run back home? She's happy for her cousin though, Gary deserved someone who would love him unconditionally. Dawn is more than happy to fight off some angry fangirls for his happiness. She slowly puts down her laptop, staring at her project notes in front of her. Paul would probably be in his room, working on building the model house. She had researched so much on earthquake material, yet she didn't get one thing. How do you make the glass shatter-proof? If it is too thick, then it will pop out and damage pedestrians. Though this is a much smaller scale, Dawn wouldn't like small glass splinters. Maybe some of that glass that turns to dust? She pulls up a new internet window and searches for it. But after another one hour of researching, she gives up. She yawns and goes to sleep, loving the warmth of her bed.

* * *

Light cracks through her window and Misty sits up, remembering what day it is. She moves slowly, as if trying to prolong the inevitable. She changes quickly, her thoughts on Cerulean city. She doesn't want to go. The probability that they will let her stay is so low that it is almost impossible. She picks up her packed bag and heads out to her car. She forgot that she'd told Ash that he could see her off, so when she gets there, she is surprised.

"Hi Misty. How long will you be away?" Ash asks sadly.

"I-I don't know." Misty says, her usual fire has faded.

As she steps into her car, she tries to make it seem like it's not a big deal. But, people may think Ash doesn't know what's going on, but he does.

"You sure you're okay going to Cerulean by yourself?" He asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm sure. I have to catch my plane soon. Bye Ash."

Her goodbye has so many meanings. But she doesn't know which one she means. As she drives off hastily, Ash can only stare until the car drives out of sight. He didn't even say bye...

* * *

"Paul! Wake your lazy ass up! You need to take me to the dojo! Gary told me that you go to the gym, which is right next to the dojo on Saturdays!" Dawn yells, literally jumping onto Paul's bed and squishing his legs.

Paul groans from the pain and from being awaken, "I can't move when you're sat on my legs, Ghost!"

"Fine." Dawn says stubbornly, clambering off the blue queen-sized bed.

Paul sits up and then raises an eyebrow.

"I can't get changed when you're in the room either."

Dawn blushes and storms out the room, yelling, "You'd better hurry!"

Dawn taps her feet impatiently as she wolfs down her breakfast, waiting for Paul. Finally, he walks into the kitchen, grabbing an apple and hungrily biting into it. Paul grabs some cereal and before he can eat it, Gary and Ash enter the room. Gary comes from the bedroom hallway, searching for something. Dawn grins as she spots a lipstick mark on his cheek. Ash walks solemnly into the kitchen from the front door. His cheeks and nose are pink and his hands are purple. How long has he been out there?

"Hey Ash, seen Misty?"

Ash's aura seems to become even more grey, but he still answers.

"Yeah, she went to go see her sisters in Cerulean city...I-I have a feeling that they want her to stay there."

They just stared at him, no wonder he is upset. They try to reassure him that she will come back, but he whispers softly,

"All her stuff is gone...she took it all."

Ash walks away, whilst Gary tries to cheer him up. But to no avail.

"Should we go?" Paul whispers, effected by the sad environment.

"Sure, I'll race you!"

Dawn and Paul sprint from the front door to his truck, with Dawn beating him by less than a second. She sticks her tongue out at him and before she can open the truck door, Paul opens it for her. Dawn stares out the truck's window at the landscape, as they drive past. Pallet is beautiful in general. It has picturesque landscapes that only the locals and a few brave tourists have every seen. Not many tourists come here, not having heard of it's beauty. Paul drives to the gym quickly, slowing down before cameras and cop points. He is trying to keep his gaze on the road, but his gaze keeps landing on the blunette. She says she doesn't like attention, but why is she wearing a tank top and shorts then? She looks...pretty in them, but there must be another reason why she likes them. Dawn hums along to the song in her head, which is the one they performed in yesterday's music class, gaining top marks. When they arrive in Viridian city, they separate to their buildings. Dawn cautiously opens the dojo door, which creeks loudly. Once she enters, the room seems to be lighter. There are boys everywhere, dressed in loose clothing. Thankfully, she notices a small group of three girls in the corner. They all stare at her as she approaches the teacher cautiously.


	12. Chapter 12

**So, here's the update. I did all my mock exams and I bet that I only do well in my English ones. I am on break now, so I should have some time to write in between all my revising.**

 **.**

* * *

"Hi, you must be Dawn?" The old man asks.

"Yeah, you're Jack?"

The man nods, "Yeah, that's me. I heard you've done martial arts since you were three. Which one do you specialise in?"

Dawn blushes, "I don't really specialise in anything...I have learnt moves from a lot of different categories. But, I think I prefer Taekwondo."

"The speedy, unbalanced type, eh? Do you want to spar against some of my students?"

Dawn nods, leaving with another girl, who helps her suit up. The armour is fairly light, but it restricts her movement slightly. She returns to find three boys and a girl in their training gear. Will she fight against these. She stands on the sparring mat, hot under the heavy articles of protection. One of the boys stands on the mat with her. He is small and she can tell that he is fast. All she has to do is watch, with her new eyes she should be able to predict his movements before he even moves. The bell rings and he runs straight at her. Eyes dart to the left, muscles tense on left arm and leg and his torso is shifting slightly. A kick to the left, Dawn predicts. She raises her arms and easily blocks the kick from reaching her face. Damn, that Kid kicks hard. She sees his muscle twist and dodges a narrow right kick by going low. She does a walkover and fits him in the face. It's not a martial art move but she finds it funny when they fall for it. A punch feint with the left to hit with the right. She put her arm to block her right, which stuns the boy, so he freezes before he could even finish the feint. She takes this opportunity to step back and make more space.

"So lame, she only hit him with a non-martial arts move! I could do much better!" A boy calls arrogantly.

"She's predicting his moves, Josh! You're not going to beat anyone until you can do that!" A girls calls, the one that isn't dressed in training gear or the one who had helped her change.

Dawn watches him with eagle eyes and this causes him to freak out. He frantically throws punches and kicks, which Dawn dodges and parries. She dodges a punch and he becomes unstable. Her body moves in a flash, her leg hitting the boy's head in a roundhouse before anyone could see her muscles tense. The boy falls over, dazed. If he hadn't of been wearing protection, he would have easily been knocked out. She adopts the taekwondo style into her one. She has speedy attacks, but unlike taekwondo, it has lots of powers and she keeps balanced.

"What? A one-hit KO!" Josh yells in surprise!

* * *

The next boy is more stocky and tall, meaning more power in his attacks. Surprisingly he starts with a kick, that Dawn narrowly blocks and she knows his plan. He attempts to get in closer to land a close, full-powered punch, but Dawn balances her centre of gravity and punches him in the torso with enough velocity and power to send the boy back several feet. Dawn doesn't give him a break, stepping forward and kicking to his left so he can easily block it. She instantly turns in mid-air and her left leg hits his right side as her right leg grounds itself. This causes the boy to fall over, meaning another victory for Dawn. The last boy is knocked out by a punch to the stomach then an , finally, it's the girl's turn.

"Let's make it as painful as possible, shall we?" She grins, cracking her knuckles.

A sadist? Dawn shivers and gets in position. The girl's eyes analyse her. She should be tired by now, so why isn't she? Wasn't her name Dawn? What a stupid name. She isn't going to let this girl be better than her. Dawn looks at the girl, noticing her fiery and fierce personality and aura. She's going to be tough.

"Hi, my name's Dawn and yours is?"

"Kasie and you better remember it when I kick your ass."

By arceus that is not going to happen, Dawn smiles. She gets into her loose stance, while Kasie stands in her tense karate stance, finding her balance. The first punch is a bit of a surprise as it slams itself into Dawn's stomach. She is sent back two feet and she coughs up a bit of blood. Wow, this girl packs a punch. She ignores her screaming stomach and edges forward again. She wouldn't be able to interrupt Kasie's balance easily. Dawn does a front kick with her left leg that Kasie blocks and grabs. Kasie tightly grips Dawn's leg, causing Dawn to grit her teeth in pain. This girl is really pissing her off. Dawn needs to get out of here, so she launches off her right leg and slams it into Kasie's side before she even knew if Dawn was going to counteract or not. Her leg is released and she positions it behind, trying to ignore the pain shooting up and down her leg. Dawn never really wanted to hurt someone, but she wants to inflict Kasie with the pain she is feeling right now. If she is equipped with a blade or a gun, she would have won ages ago. But, they can't do any serious pain to each other. Kasie just laughs at the blunette face as she tries to hide the pain.

"You really are a weakling! I though you were strong too!"

Dawn's gaze goes red.

* * *

 _"Dawn, Honey? Why are you studying martial arts, baby?" Her mother says, using concealer to cover the bruises._

 _"Because I want to protect you!" Dawn's small, yet cheerful voice echoes around the room._

 _"But fighting isn't the best resolution, Dawn."_

 _"You don't have to give me a lecture, mummy!" The young Dawn grins cheekily, practising a few kicks._

 _"You're not doing it right, darling. Kick a little higher and stabilise your bottom foot more."_

 _"You know martial arts?"_

 _"Yes..."_

 _"Then why don't you use it on Daddy?"_

 _"Because I still love him, it's complicated, sweety."_

 _Dawn wants to protect her mother, who says she needs protecting. She reaches up and grabs her hand._

 _"What if I get angry and hurt someone?" Dawn asks._

 _"Leave the fight or warn them first. If they complain, just tell them you warned them. It's bad to harm another person, but it's worse to underestimate someone else. Just promise me that you don't kill anyone because of your anger, I won't forgive you."_

* * *

Dawn had already killed someone; she has already broken one of her promises and she wasn't going to break the others. Her mum may have never forgiven her...A shooting pain rips up her legs, Kasie had just landed a powerful kick at her damaged left leg. Her leg is shaking uncontrollably and Dawn hisses from the excruciating pain. Dawn begins to raise her hand as a surrender sign, but Kasie yells,

"Don't underestimate me."

Dawn's mind flashes to her mum's words and through her anger she responds.

"Fine, but I won't go easy on you. Just remember I warned you."

Kasie grins, not knowing what she has signed herself up for.

"You probably can't even bruise me, bidoof!"

Calling someone a bidoof when referring to martial arts is one of the lowest insults. It implies that you are clumsy and slow. Dawn growls, causing Kasie's grin to widen. She elbows Dawn in the stomach, hard. That's when Dawn strikes. She vanishes infront of Kasie and Kasie feels a pain to her stomach causing her to hunch over, before she feels a leg hit her head with so much force that she blacks out. Dawn stands behind Kasie, who slumps over. She lowers her left leg, which is vibrating like crazy after the lightening quick roundhouse kick. Somehow, Kasie manages to sit up, the word spinning. A nurse ran over to test her brain functions, which seem to be fine. Jack hurries away all the students apart from Kasie, who's testing has finished, and five others. They apparently have more training. A slow clapping happens from the door to the dojo. Dawn recognises the purple-haired boy.

"Paul Shinji, what are you doing here? Did Gerald send you?" Jack yells, causing Dawn to look at him curiously.

"Nope, I came to collect Dawn. I didn't expect you to damage my squad 0 colleague," Paul smirks.

"W-Wait, she's a part of squad 0?" Josh yells with surprised eyes.

They all turn to stare at Dawn with wide eyes. She hears Kasie yell at no one in particular,

"If I knew that, I wouldn't have battled her! I had no chance of winning!"

Dawn smiles, not sure if they are friend or foe. And why did Paul call her a colleague?

"Yeah, my name's Ghost, the newest member."

Jack's eyes widen, "The one with the killer aim? And now the one that kicked my student's butts! I was going to invite you to squad 1, but I guess you're already employed by the PBI."

"Squad 1?" Dawn asks.

Paul answers, "Yeah, more like the fighters. The lower the number of your squad, the higher up in the system you are and the harder the missions. Squad 0 is the highest, but generally you specialise in stealth, undercover, hacking or breaking and entering. Not saying anything about squad 1 is bad, but your skills are better used in squad 0."

"But what about her skills in martial arts?" Josh asks, fascinated.

"She can still use them in her missions. I was referring to her blending, hacking, flexibility and weapons skills. Her aim is better than any weapon specialist I have ever seen and she's the only one to beat Phony's hacking game at 100 difficulty..twice."

"Damn, well Dawn, I hope your squad and mine pair up for some missions. Normally I wouldn't want to help people from competing squads, but I want to see your skills grow. So, see you next week."

"Yeah," Dawn smiles, beginning to move.

Sharp shocks of pain resonate through her left leg and she falls onto the floor.

"Ouch...damn Kasie, a bit easier next time?" Dawn laughs quietly, as Paul picks her up off the floor.

"Says you, that kick really hurt. I won't be able to train until tomorrow. Though I guess you won't be able to train for a week or so."

"Actually, I should be okay by Monday. I've conditioned my body to heal faster. I had to after I twisted my ankle once and I had to miss five ballet lessons, two martial art lessons, a track meet and five swimming lessons. I'm glad I don't have that many commitments now, though."

"You did ballet, swimming, martial arts and track at the same time?" A voice asks, surprisingly Paul's.

"Well, yeah..."

"Anyway, we need to train. So see you later Dawn. Friends?" Kasie asks.

Paul lowers Dawn in his arms so that she can fist bump Kasie, who is sat on the ground after the spar.

"Friends."

* * *

The drive home is slow, as Dawn complains about her leg every few minutes, much to Paul's annoyance.

"Paul, help me out of the truck please!"

"No."

"But, would you leave your friend's cousin-"

"Fine."

Dawn grins as Paul carries her to the house, glad that she has an excuse to make Paul wait on her all day. As they enter the house, they notice May and Drew passing by the front door.

"Hi Dawn, did you hurt your leg?"

"Yeah, this girl kicked me really hard. But I knocked her out and we're friends now, so it's fine. "

"You knocked her out?" May almost yells, looking concerned.

"I was angry, but she was only out for a few seconds. She's too tough to be out for longer." Dawn says, not realising that she is making May freaked out.

"Yeah, remind me not to make you angry, Dawn," May whispers, sounding rather scared.

Dawn just smiles and Paul carries her to the living room, where he leaves her helplessly on the couch. Her leg hurts to move and standing on it would send pain throughout her entire body, so she sits watching cartoons, desperately wanting to do something else. May and Drew watch her from the living room door.

"It's unnerving, seeing Dawn so helpless," Drew whispers, whilst May nods.

He entwines his cold hands with hers, seeking her warmth.

"Should we go for a walk? I found this clearing with beautiful roses in it, April," Drew smirks.

"It's May, Drew. And of course I'll go. Just don't make me anymore mad than I am," May hisses.

"But I like it when you're mad."

* * *

Misty steps out of the airport, feeling the more polluted air of the city. Compared to Pallet town's clean air, the air here is like a sheet of putrid air smothering her. She resists the urge to cough and steps towards the cab nearby.

"Erm...can I get a ride to the Cerulean gym?"

The cab driver nods and the journey is quiet. Misty stares at the familiar buildings. She has so many memories of this place, making her want to leave this place forever. After she was left in her sister's custody, she had been pressured by the three to become the best she could be. But she feel under the pressure, until she met Ash. She smiles as she remembers it. She was no more 14 years old and had been going to buy some books, trying to meet her sister's impossible standards. He then showed up and he took her to the amusement park, all because she wouldn't...or couldn't smile. That was the first day in a while that she had smiled and laughed. He had only visited Cerulean for a day, but Misty's life had changed. Instead of walking around moping, she helped other people like he'd helped her. Instead of having a cloud above her head, she helped be the sun for other, making their personal clouds go away. He seems like such a childish, annoying guy when you first meet him, but he understands you much more than anyone else you thought would. His annoyingly cheerful, obnoxious and happy personality and attitude always got on her nerves, but she has got use to it. Without it, he wouldn't have such a positive effect on the people he meets. Unlike her, he changed people just by trying a little harder than everyone else.

"You thinking about your boyfriend, miss?" The cab driver asks, staring at her in the rear-view window.

"No...only a friend I left behind in Pallet town."

"Well, he's a lucky guy. I can tell you like him a lot. Mostly, because if you didn't, you wouldn't have been intently staring at his picture with a smile for the last five minutes."

Misty blushes, glancing once more at the photograph of Ash before sighing.

"You know, if you love him, go back." The driver smiles.

"I can't...I just can't. My legal guardians live here...and..."

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me. If he loves you, he'll follow you to the edge of the world." The car driver says, a soft smile on his face.

He couldn't stand this beautiful girl so upset over leaving her 'friend'. He had seen so many emotions of the people in his cab. He always tried to help them, but some of them didn't want to be helped. Some of them couldn't be helped.

"My name's Misty and...thank you. You remind me of him, actually. So cheerful and helping everyone. But unlike you, he is so annoying and obnoxious...but I guess that's what I like about him."

She smiles sadly at the picture again before putting it into her coat pocket. The rest of the cab driver is in silence, yet Misty feels more at ease. She would see Ash again, wouldn't she?

"You're late!" Violet yells, having expected Misty back a while ago,

"Sorry, my plane was delayed by half an hour." Misty says, quieter than normal.

She'd been back for thirty minutes, but it felt like a year. They had yelled at her and scolded her since her return, telling her what she had done wrong. Everything, in their eyes. They saw her as a sibling, but not as a sister. Apparently, she wasn't fit to be one of these 'sensational' sisters, not that she'd want to be one. But it is a blow to her self esteem when they tell her that she lacks the properties. So what if she wasn't as well developed? So what if she didn't have nice, long hair? So what if she wants to be known for who she is, not who they want her to be?

* * *

Ash sits at the table, twiddling his thumbs. He stares at the stars outside, mesmerised by them. Paul walks into the kitchen, carrying in Dawn's food tray. It had been hilarious when Dawn had reached up for the food and he'd held it out her reach. He hadn't given it to her, until she'd agreed to help him with some of his homework tomorrow. She had the cutest expression on her face, not that Paul would ever admit that. He washes the plates and calls out to Ash.

"Why don't you go after her, Ash?"

"What? Go after Misty? She'd beat the crap out of me with her mallet." Ash laughs sadly, dismissing the thought straight away.

"But you love her right?"

That made Ash think. Really think. Did he love Misty? He liked her. He really did. But love? Her smile, smiling for him everyday. Her laugh, laughing at his jokes. Her eyes, forever staring at his. Without saying anything, he reaches for his coat and Paul hands him a plane ticket for a flight that sets off in half an hour. Ash leaves without a word, sending one glance back at Paul. He'd have to thank him when he returned...with Misty. As he steps out of the house, he looks up at the blinking stars.

"Take me to Cerulean gym, please." Ash says to the cab driver, who smiles at him even though it is very late.

"You're the second person to ask me that today. You look familiar."

"I shouldn't do, I just arrived from Pallet town. I'm chasing after this girl," Ash smiles softly to himself, "She always gets angry at me and says I'm really annoying, but...I love her. She's got that kind of fire that most people seem to lack. When I first met her, we were 14 and I saw she wasn't smiling. So I took her, a complete stranger, to an amusement park. She seemed to have gained her fire back when I met her next."

"Now I know why I recognised you. A girl had a photo of you, actually she headed to the same place as you are. Is there any chance that her name is Misty?"

"Wait...you met Misty?" Ash's eyes glow.

The cab driver nods and smiles. Maybe some happily ever afters do happen after all.

* * *

Misty gazes out of the window at the blinking stars, wanting to escape the confines of the house. Having a house right next to the gym is convenient, but it means that she's placed in a busy part of the city. She sighs and pulls out an old paper fan. It isn't anything special, but Ash had bought it for her when he took her, a stranger, to the amusement park. It is still in perfect condition, just like the day he had bought it for her. It seems like only seconds she is staring at the beautiful object, but it's really minutes. Misty sighs as she reads the clock as 11:54pm, putting the fan away in it's box. A knock resonates throughout the house and Misty runs down to open the door, who would visit at almost midnight? She opens the door to find the black-haired idiot.

"Ash, what the hell are you doing here?" Misty yells, angry that Ash had come to Cerulean city, but not having thought of why he is.

"Please don't beat me up, Misty. I just wanted to-"

"I said that I needed to go alone, Ash!" Misty yells, grabbing her mallet from seemingly nowhere.

"Misty, listen! I-I need to talk to you-"

"Ash, you flew here to see me? Are you insane?"

Ash laughs, "Maybe I am."

Misty stops her ranting and stares at him. Ash looks relieved at finally getting her attention and he speaks again, quieter.

"So Misty, I literally travelled straight here from the airport. I came here tonight to tell you something I don't want you to stay here in Cerulean city. I know this is shit timing, but I want to say that...I love you."

What? Ash loves her. Misty just stares at him, the mallet slipping from her hand onto the ground with a thud. Does she love him? It isn't as easy as a yes or no question. Would she be able to put up with his annoyingly cheerful attitude everyday? Probably. But, does she truly love him, or is it just heat of the moment. As she stares at him, the paper fan comes to her mind. The smooth crisp feel of the paper under her fingers; the beautiful colours of the paper seen from her eyes.

"I-I don't know what to say. I c-can't-"

Ash gently presses his lips against hers, stopping her from finishing the sentence. His lips are warm against hers and she can feel the pull she has towards him. He breaks away, as if saying goodbye forever. He turns his back and walks back towards the airport. Misty can only stare. When he is out of sight, she realises what she had done. She rushes to her room, phoning the cab company on the way.

* * *

"Please hurry to the airport!" Misty yells, throwing her suitcase into the cab before her.

She recognises the guy from earlier.

"Please, if we don't get there soon, he'll be on the flight home!" She whispers frantically, feeling the tears roll down her cheeks.

"Don't worry, I'll get there as fast as I can. You love him, don't you?" The cab driver smiles.

"Yes. Yes, I do."

As they arrive outside the airport, she spots the back of his head and bounces out the cab, pulling her suitcase behind her. The cab driver watches from the door of his cab, desperately wanting Misty to make it on time. They are on the massive pavement outside the airport and Misty can see Ash just about to enter the airport.

"Ash!"

He turns around at his name being called and sees Misty, standing with frantic breathing, her cheeks the same colour as her hair. She drops her luggage where she stands and sprints into Ash's arms, tears flowing down her face in a constant stream.

"I l-love you, Ash. Don't leave me."

The cab driver smiles as the couple kiss each other passionately outside the airport. He gets into his cab and drives off, singing a happy tune in his head.

* * *

 **I never noticed what horrible format this is. For some reason when I copy and paste this, it doesn't allow me to make paragraphs. So I am going to go through all my chapters and add horizontal lines for the paragraphs. So sorry, it must have been horrible to read.**

 **^.^**


	13. Chapter 13

**I never realised how bad the format was, sorry about that. It must have been hard to read chapters because the website won't allow me to make paragraphs, so I will have to use horizontal lines. To make up for the awful formatting, I am posting an extra update!**

 **^.^**

* * *

Dawn turns over in her bed, not able to sleep. Her leg aches and she gives up trying to sleep. Instead, she hobble to the kitchen. But before she could make it, she hears the front door opening. Who would that be? She sees Misty and Ash walk through the door, noticing Dawn in the doorway with a new bandage wrapped around her leg. Did Ash go get Misty? Dawn literally squeals in her head from the cuteness, but manages to calmly speak.

"Hi guys, just get off the plane?"

"Yeah...it's been a long night. I've been on two flights within several hours and my head is killing me." Ash says, trying to nurse his headache.

"Misty...why are you wearing Ash's coat?" Dawn smirks, giving her a look.

Surprisingly, Misty blushes instead of yelling a response.

"Well...I left my coat in my suitcase and I was cold on the plane. So, Ash lent it to me. Here, you can have it back."

"Thanks Misty," Ash smiles, gently kissing Misty on her lips.

Dawn starts fangirling and they stare at her like she is crazy. They wave goodbye and Ash carries Misty's suitcase to her bedroom for her like a gentleman. Dawn grabs some cookies from the cupboard and is about to eat the first before it is taken from her hand. She scowls as Paul swallows the cookies.

"Hey Paul! That was mine! What are you doing up at this time? Do you have insomnia?"

"I just don't like sleeping. I was waiting for Ash."

"How did you know Ash was out? Wait...you told him to go after her, didn't you? Aww, you're such a romantic!" Dawn teases.

"Shut up, Ghost." Paul says, a slight blush on his cheeks.

He grabs another of Dawn's cookies, ignoring her protests. He turns to go, but Dawn calls out after him.

"Don't leave me! My leg isn't in the best condition!"

He continues walking.

"I'll help you with your homework now!"

He stops and walks back, picking her up.

He roughly throws Dawn onto his bed, making her heart skip a beat. She only wanted to help him with his homework, not get thrown around. Paul retrieves his school and homework. Dawn sifts onto her stomach, trying to keep as much pressure off her leg as possible.

"Here. There's two pieces of homework I don't get. History and computing."

"You take history?" Dawn asks inquisitively.

"Yeah, when you have maths. It's annoying when you're in four of my lessons."

"But I don't know much history!"

"Remember, you said you'd help me. So just shut up and help."

"You sure you aren't a tsundere?"

* * *

Dawn nurses a bruising arm as she helps Paul with his homework. It takes a gruelling hour before they finish and Dawn yawns, getting comfortable.

"I didn't say you could sleep on my bed!"

"But I'm tired!" Dawn whispers, ready to sleep.

"Ghost, go to your own room...Ghost? You're asleep...aren't you?"

Paul looks at Dawn, to see her eyes are closed and she is breathing slowly. Her skin is covered in goosebumps and he sighs as he puts her under his covers. He can see a sleepy smile on Dawn's face as she cuddles into his pillow. Paul sighs, kissing Dawn's forehead before heading to the living room, where the video games live.

Dawn stirs, stretching. She easily smells the overpowering smell of forests and chocolate. She notices the blue colours of the bed. Did she fall asleep on Paul's bed? He must have put her under the covers, Dawn blushes a scarlet red. She somehow manages to move her leg, that is very stiff after her sleep. The clock reads 9 am and Dawn realises that she is starving. She stumbles to the kitchen, noticing that everyone is eating breakfast together for once.

"Hey Pink. Where were you? I checked your room, but you weren't there." Gary says, stuffing his mouth with delicious pancakes.

"Oh, I was...in the garden, reading," Dawn lies smoothly.

"I didn't see you when I looked, were you behind a bush or a tree?" Leaf smiles, trying to get Gary to chew before he swallows.

"Yeah, I had my back against the tree. I needed some support for my leg."

"How is your leg?" May asks, looking at the loose bandages.

You could easily see the nasty purple bruise inbetween the gaps of the bandage.

"It's stiff, but it recover soon." Dawn smiles, pretending like she isn't in agony.

Dawn feels warmer than usual, but she ignores it. Maybe she picked up a cold? She sits down, but her leg hurts. She tries to act normal and ignore the excruciating pain. Dawn smiles as she eats, trying to join in the conversations.

May and Drew are in their own little world as they flirt at the table, seeming to ignore everyone else. Dawn finds it super cute, but it's just pissing Paul off.

"Gary, shh!" Leaf yells, her face bright red.

"But I wanted to tell people what I got you for your birthday on Thursday..." Gary smirks, teasingly.

"If you do that, I'll fucking kill you. You understand? Leaf threatens, her eyes glaring at Gary.

"Did you mean I love you?"

Leaf sweatdrops and sighs,

"I hate you, Gary."

She gently pecks Gary on the lips and goes to wash her plate. May and Drew leave for a date to the park with a picnic, while Misty and Ash head off to the zoo. Leaf reaches up to put her glass in the cupboard. Gary ducks slightly and laughs,

"Oh my god! You're actually wearing it, Leaf!"

"Shut up!" Leaf yells, regretting wearing a short skirt today.

But Dawn can't hear the rest of the conversation, as her vision becomes blurry.

"Dawn? Are you okay?" Paul's voice calls out and she can feel him grip her waist before she faints.

Paul's arms ground her slightly and her vision returns.

"I'm..I'm fine."

Leaf, Gary and Paul look at her, not buying it. Now had to be the time that she didn't have the strength to lie. Paul picks the weak Dawn up and carries her to a place that she can lay down. Leaf and Gary stare after them. Paul seems to spend a lot of time looking after Dawn, even though he doesn't seem to enjoy it. But someone who isn't a friend would spend so much time looking after her...actually he spends more time looking after her than a best friend would. Why does Paul bother if he doesn't care about her? He always seems so annoyed or emotionless when he tries to look after her.

* * *

May giggles, putting the flower behind her ear. Her and Drew sit on a beautiful blanket under the shining sun in Pallet park. Drew holds her hand tightly, slightly nervous. He really didn't want to mess up this date. He could rarely take May anywhere without them arguing before they got together. He didn't mind teasing, but arguing just made his stomach curl. He loves May, he doesn't want her to hurt.

"What are you thinking about, Babe?" May whispers, wanting Drew's troubled expression to go away.

"Oh, nothing." Drew says quickly, wanting to change subject.

"Oh come on, it isn't nothing, Drew," May whispers sternly, not wanting Drew to worry.

"I'm...just thinking about how we use to argue a lot. I don't want to argue with you, but I know that's unavoidable."

"Yeah..." May whispers, now troubled.

"Sorry, May. Can we just forget what I said?"

"No...No! If you are troubled over anything, tell me. Please."

"Fine. Only because it's you."

"Drew. You love me, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, I just like it when you tell me that."

Drew smiles and whispers in May's ear,

"I love you."

* * *

"Ash! Slow down! I can't keep up!" Misty yells as Ash cheerfully pulls her along through the zoo.

"What's the matter? Don't you want to see the Dewgong?"

"You're trying too hard. Just take a deep breath."

Ash takes a deep breath and takes the opportunity to clear his mind. It really is like trying to look after a child, Misty notices.

"So, do you want to see the Dewgong?"

"Of course I do. But...I want a kiss first," Misty blurts out without thinking.

"You should have just said so," Ash replies bluntly.

* * *

A slight pressure is on Dawn's forehead. It's slightly cool and she opens her eyes slowly. Why is she is Paul's room again?

"I'm keeping an eye on you. You're not well." Paul says quietly, sitting at his desk with some of his many books.

"No shit, Sherlock. I feel awful."

Dawn tries to cure her headache, but to no avail. She tries to sit up, but that makes her feel worse. After ten minutes, she sighs.

"I'm bored...and hungry. What time is it? The clock's light is too painful."

"It's 1 pm, you want me to get you some food?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Minutes later, Paul returns with some soup. He helps Dawn prop herself up and she somehow manages to eat the soup. She feels really warm and her temperature doesn't feel like it's going to lower anytime soon. Paul stands up to go to his desk, but Dawn yells,

"I'm bored!"

So, Paul reads to her, making her feel drowsy. She stares at him as he reads, making him feel uncomfortable. When he leaves to re-wet her head towel, she drifts off into an uncomfortable sleep. A relieved look appears on Paul's face when he returns and he goes back to reading in peace.

* * *

Dawn yawns, her temperature having returned to normal. She spots light filtering through the curtains and sits up, finding that her leg doesn't hurt. She examines it, noticing that the bruise has, incredibly, gone. She notices a lump next to her. That had to be Paul, why didn't he move her to her bed? He might get sick now...not that she cared. She rubs her eyes and checks the clock. 7:01am. Damnit, they would be late if they didn't leave soon. She nudges the lump, but it doesn't respond. She nudges harder and there is still no response. She slams her body into it and there is a response, finally.

"What the hell, Ghost? I'm sleeping!"

"We're going to be late if we don't get up soon!"

"Fine. Go get ready. I'm getting up now," Paul sighs, getting out of the warm bed.

Dawn manages to leave the stuffing, warm bed and run to her room, where she dresses and does her makeup in a flash. She passes Leaf in the hall, who puts a slice of toast in Dawn's mouth as she rushes to the front door with her packed school bag. She smiles when she realises she is ready in time. Leaf passes by her and they both get into Gary's car. Gary loves his cousin to pieces, but he'd prefer if he could have Leaf to himself.

"So Pink, you were almost late. How's your fever?"

"It's better. Paul looked after me." Dawn whispers.

"I don't get it," Leaf blurts out, staring squarely at Dawn. "He always seems pissed when he has to help you, but he does it anyway."

Dawn shrugs, she doesn't get him anymore than Leaf does.

"Do you like him?" Leaf asks.

"What? Who?"

"Paul."

"What? No! What are you implying?"

"Well, he slept in the same bed as you, even though you were sick. It was kind of cute in my opinion. I'm just surprised that he didn't move you back to your room." Gary says, concentrating on the road.

Dawn guesses that Gary came to check on her in the night. He may not always be present, but the little things he does make him an amazing cousin. She doesn't answer the questions. She doesn't like Paul! Why are they even asking her? He probably hates her. Dawn tries to ignore the sad tug at her heart and focuses on the steady thrum of the sport car's engine. The journey to school is quiet as Dawn stares at the towering trees in between buildings and houses.

* * *

Dawn sits down into computing, but Paul isn't there. Where is he? Is he skiving? Because, she is sure that he got up. She sighs, feeling empty. Feeling as if she has a hole in her chest. Why does it feel empty when he isn't here? He has become such a part of her new life in Kanto, maybe that's why? She can feel the beats of her heart as it squeezes with each painful beat. Maybe she is still sick? At break, she traverses the halls and finds herself in the sports gym.

"Hello Miss. Perfect."

She'd wondered when they would pop up again. But she couldn't be bothered...she feels helpless. Why is she acting helpless? Dawn screams in her head.

"Hi, Ursula. Rebecca. Brianna." Dawn says, nodding to each of them as she says their name.

"Do you know why Paul is off today?" Ursula blurts out, outspoken like usual.

"Nope, I don't."

Even Dawn couldn't help but hear the sadness in her voice.

"Well, I guess this leaves us with the opportunity to beat you up!" Rebecca smiles with a fake innocent face.

"Did someone say something about beating someone up?"

Dawn turns around to face Kasie in a Viridian high uniform.

"Just skiving and I'd thought that I'd pop by."

"Erm...hi...Kasie," Ursula mumbles, looking at her shoes as if they are suddenly interesting.

"How are you Dawn? How's the leg? I'm surprised you managed to beat me with that leg!"

"Wait! Dawn won against you?"

"Yeah, if I hadn't made her angry, I had a high chance of winning."

"Even when I was angry, you still had a good chance of winning."

Rebecca, Ursula and Brianna slowly back away, giving Dawn feared looks. They knew how strong Kasie was, having received the brunt of that force. They didn't want to face the first person who won against her, ever.

Kasie chuckles, "Yeah. Like a one in a million chance or something of you winning."

"Erm...yeah," Dawn whispers sadly, having found a small spot on the floor to stare at.

Kasie looks at her worried, did she say something wrong?

"You don't look well."

"Yeah, I had a fever yesterday."

"What are your symptoms? I'm just curious."

"Sharp chest pains, fever, lack of appetite, insomnia. Feeling down, if that's a symptom."

"That sounds like the symptoms of lovesickness."

"What?" Dawn yells in her head and outloud.

"Just saying...it could be something else. You could have...er...I have nothing. Oh well, get better soon and I'll see you tonight. We have a joint mission!"

* * *

Dawn almost gets a heart attack when she bumps into someone on her way to classroom 23. She instantly steps back, apologising. Only to trip over backwards from her own feet.

"Damnit Ghost, can't you walk on your own two feet?"

"I can. Remember, people call me perfect."

But of course, both her and him know that she isn't. No matter how much you argue it, the minute she was brought into the world, she'd been far from perfect. Her father would abuse her mother, who would pressure her daughter to become perfect unintentionally causing harm to her daughter. Her life is like a tower of blocks. One wrong move and it would all come falling down. Her life is built on pressure and lies, which only build invisible barriers between her and living. Was life worth living when it has become nothing more than a 'life' of lies and despair. Could it even be called a life at all?

Paul sighs, "Come on Ghost, we have a joint mission today."

"Where have you been? You weren't in lessons..." Dawn whispers.

She had missed him, but that she'd ever tell him that.

"I was sleeping; I didn't feel too well."

Lie. It was blantantly a lie, but she doesn't say anything. He wasn't sleeping; he wasn't sick. But what was he up to?

"Attention guys!" Gerald's loud, now serious voice echoes around the still room. "We are joining forces today with squad 1. It's dangerous, so you're each being entrusted with temporary pokemon to protect you. You leave in half an hour. Overwatch, Luca, you are at base. Sorry about this, but we need someone to watch over them."

"I know. I know, Gerald. They'd probably be dead long before without me. I should get used to it by now; I am not as good in the field as I used to be." Lucas says, a hint of sadness present in his downcast voice.

"You sound like an old man!" Rosa laughs, not realising the tense and worrying atmosphere.

But her comment relieves the thick smog of uncertainty and everyone springs to action, preparing for the mission. Dawn's mother had always told her that one ray of sunshine could light up an entire room. She hadn't got it until she sees Rosa. Rosa is squad 0's sun. Without her, they'd be lost in the dark.

"Hurry up Dawn! I need to help you find an outfit!" Serena yells, causing Dawn to stop daydreaming and rush over to her.

* * *

The drive to Viridian city is long and the pokeball clasped in Dawn's hand feels heavier than a giratina. Though, if she could lift 1,653.5 pounds (lbs), maybe she wouldn't be in this mess. She sighs, raking her hair with her free hand. The pressure is like a deep fog in the air and Dawn relishes the cool air from the window, seeking comfort of the outside, unknowing world. She is wearing a shirt and short skirt combo with a cute white beanie. They have to play the part of pokemon trainers and take out the Xerneas gang, which specialise in pokemon battling. They have been entered into a tournament, where the winner/winners fights the boss. They didn't have to win; they just need to weaken the gang so they couldn't cause any major damage. It is a well known fact that some of the gang's captains participate in a chance to prove who is better. Capturing or killing the boss is an added bonus, but that is unlikely when bodyguards exist everywhere. It is difficult enough getting into the establishment with an earpiece and a microphone watch than weapons. But somehow, the switchblade strapped to her thigh make it in undiscovered. She nods to Kasie and the rest of squad 1, who are blending in with the others. Besides from Kasie, the only one of squad 1's names that she knows is Josh, which is a shame really. She sighs and turns to the battle arena. There would be four games going on at a time and if she wasn't part of the PBI, she would be worried about being arrested on charges of illegal tournament battling. Dawn has never used pokemon before, so she can feel her heart beating nervously. Her mother had some from when she was a coordinator, but Dawn wasn't interested in that career. She clutches the pokemon harder. You battle until your one pokemon faints, seems easy enough, right? Dawn approaches the desk to sign up for the event. She reaches the desk, with an old man sat behind it.

"Are you signing up for the single or double tournament?" The man asks, sounds bored as if he has been through this process and asked the same questions many times before.

"The sin-"

"The double tournament." Paul says, cutting in.

"What?"

Dawn starts to complain, but Paul just ignores her and fills in the sheet, adding false information. When he turns to leave, Dawn follows.

"What was that for? Why do I have to battle with you?"

"Because we have a better chance of winning that way. Also, it's Gerald's orders. I wouldn't battle with an annoying girl like you if I had the choice."

"I'm not annoying!" Dawn yells, trying to make herself more intimidating.

But the intimidation doesn't work and Paul just smirks at her, as if challenging her. Dawn grits her teeth in anger.

"Your reaction tells me otherwise," Paul smirks, walking through the crowd that blocks Dawn from following him.

Damn that jerk! And when she had started to think he was her friend too.


	14. Chapter 14

**I haven't had time to spell-check this yet, so hopefully there are no mistakes.**

 **^.^**

* * *

Dawn nervously sits at the table, nervously shaking as she watches the pokemon battles going on. There are 4 battlefields and two single and two double battles happen simultaneously. Rosa, Wes and Serena pass through the first single battle stage, which relieves Dawn slightly. However, the chance of them battling against each other is high. Rosa has a serperior, Wes has an espeon and Serena has fennekin. Dawn herself doesn't know which pokemon she has got; honestly she is scared to find out. Would the pokemon even listen to her? She is so weak that she highly doubts it. The announcer calls out to the crowd.

"And the double battle ends on battlefield 4, with Blaze and Mirage winning."

Ridiculous nicknames seem to be common in these tournaments to cover people's identities. Dawn worries about the nickname Paul wrote down for her. But she has no time to worry, because she is up next. She ignores Paul as she takes her place. Maybe she is acting childish, but she doesn't care at this moment. She grips her pokeball tightly and she can feel it digging into her skin painfully.

"The battle between Ghost and Wolf against Fyre and Hallow will begin."

Dawn almost laughs, trust him to pick their codenames. She keeps her face blank; a battle is like a game of poker. If you can't be read, you have just about won. Many people fail because they give their plans away too early.

Fyre yells, "Go houndoom!"

Hallow calls in his loud, booming voice, "Go haunter, let's pound them!"

Dawn calls out quietly, "Spotlight!"

Paul just appears bored as he throws out his pokemon.

Dawn's pokemon is small and cute, blue and white in colour.

"Piplup!" He cries as he stands on the battlefield, inspecting it's current owner.

Piplup has had many owners while helping out the PBI. After all, they don't own him, he offers his services to them. Pokemon are never owned. He puffs out his chest and stare at the tough pokemon in front of him. Hopefully he has a strong trainer. But something tells him that she has never battled in her life and that makes him disregard her entirely. A torterra appears beside him and piplup can see the trainer strong-like glint in his trainer's eyes. Now that is what a pokemon trainer should be like. Why he is put into the hands of an incapable 16 year old, he has no idea. But he is going to have a firm talk with his PBI manager after this.

Dawn takes deep breathes and focuses on the battlefield. She can feel people staring at them...at her. They won't know who she is, but she still gets stared at. Partly because of her looks and partly because she seems to radiate a gripping and appealing aura. She layers on a calm mask and the first attack is called.

"Torterra, earthquake." Paul says calmly.

Piplup knows he has to get out of their and since his 'trainer' hasn't called a move, he jumps off torterra's back as the earthquake ensues at magnitude 9.0. The houndoom takes the brunt of the attack, while haunter is left helpless as he is immune to the ground attack. The haunter surges forwards, his trainer commanding him to use shadow claw on torterra. But piplup decides to rudely tell this haunter that there isn't only one enemy. Piplup soars thorough the sky after jumping off torterra's back and drill pecks into the ghost type with so much velocity that both are sent flying back. Haunter tries to shake off the attack, but it has caused massive damage to his ghostly body. That piplup sure packs a punch. The four pokemon glare at each other.

"Flare blitz on torterra!"

"Haunter use shadow ball on piplup to stop it moving!"

"Piplup dodge!"

Piplup ignores the 'trainer's' command and sends bubble beams to counter the attack of the shadow balls. Torterra watches the weak fire pokemon stumble towards him to get a better range.

"Torterra use grass knot," Paul smirks.

The grass knot unleashes from the ground, causing the houndoom to trip over and face plant, where a stream of bubble beams savagely hit it's body. The houndoom howls and grits it's teeth in both pain and anger. It unleashes a flare blitz, but it falls short and causes the ground to fly up in front of it.

"Piplup, take advantage of the flying debris and get closer to haunter!"

Piplup's eyes widen, that isn't such a bad idea. He quickly bounces on the flying pieces of rock and ends up above the heavily damaged houndoom, who is prepared to attack. Torterra sends a string of energy balls at the haunter, causing it to be distracted as it tries to dodge the high-powered attacks. Dawn notices the temperature rise of the houndoom's mouth before everyone but Paul.

"Piplup move to the left and spin! Then use bubblebeam." Dawn says, hoping the pokemon listens to her.

Piplup questions the girl's statement; he doesn't have to listen to her. Then he sees the building flames in the pokemon's mouth. Maybe she isn't as useless as he thought. He spins to the left, moving parallel to the flames that erupt fiercely in a flamethrower. The water type pokemon unleashes a torrent of bubbles that move in a spinning motion, causing a whirpool effect. Unable to escape, the houndoom succumbs to unconsciousness.

"Yes!" Dawn yells, turning to smile at Paul, before she realises that she is trying to avoid looking at him.

He flashes her a smirk to her annoyance, but she knows it's one of his signals.

"Piplup, get out of the way!" She yells at the same time Paul tells torterra to unleash a staggering amount of energy balls that cover the entire field.

Piplup uses bubblebeam to propel itself into the air, avoiding the super-effective move. The haunter is blasted with the powerful attacks and also faints because it has no where to escape to. Piplup does a backflip and lands with a flourish, causing the crowd to cheer really loudly at the win and the cute pokemon.

"And the double battle on battlefield 4 has come to an end, with Wolf and Ghost the winners, having skillfully dominated their opponents."

Dawn returns the prideful pokemon and lets out the breath she had held. Paul smirks at her, obviously pleased with winning.

"Good try for your first battle. Though I have to say that the piplup is better at battling than you are. "

"Why can't I be the one battling? I could knock the pokemon out with a punch or two!"

"It's called a 'pokemon' battle for a reason, Ghost."

They take another seat and watch the match ups for the second round. Dawn can feel her blood rising when she sees that they are paired up with the favourites to win the doubles tournament. Ha! As if she is going to let that happen.

* * *

"Serperior, dodge it!" Rosa yells, her fingers crossed behind her back.

The agile grass pokemon dodges and Rosa turns to face Josh again. Them being chosen to battle against each other is really unfortunate, especially when there is only six rounds. The double battles have 5 rounds, as it has 32 pairs. Josh has a bulbasaur and it isn't a weak one either. It doesn't matter which one of them wins, but Rosa doesn't want to give squad 1 the satisfaction that they are stronger.

The bulbasaur runs at serperior and continuously hit it with quick attacks. Rosa watches helplessly, is this what it feels like to be a trainer?

"Serperior, lets get serious! Use aerial ace!"

"What?" Josh yells in horror. "Bulbasaur! Get the hell out of there!"

But bulbasaur is in such close proximity that it is struck with the aerial ace and with one just one move, the pokemon is KO'd. Serperior can barely stand, but it still flashes a grin to the cheering audience.

"What?" Josh yells even louder in shock and disbelief.

The crowd cheers louder than normal, but still not as loud as when Dawn and Paul had won in the first round, which caused the crowd to roar. Rosa smiles sadly. No matter how much she tries, she can never stand out against Paul and Dawn. No matter how devious and clever she is, they are always one step ahead. And on top of that, they have this powerful atmosphere around them. While Dawn's is an aura of determination, Paul's is an aura of destruction. Maybe she will never be on par or better than them. They are in a league of their own.

* * *

Serena falls short against this mysterious boy, one of the gang's four captains. He wears a massive cloak to hide his identity, but she has a feeling that they have met before. His talonflame easily demolishes her fennekin, even though they both have the fire attribute. She has a long way to go before she can become good enough to rival that. But for her second pokemon battle, she is fairly pleased with herself. Thankfully, Wes passes to the third stage along with Rosa. Only four more rounds for them to go. Then the announcer calls over the crowd,

"On battlefield 3, the battle between Ghost and Wolf against Froste and Maron will begin!"

"Piplup, spotlight!" Dawn yells with more confidence, throwing the pokeball with a flourish.

"Froslass, show them those's boss!"

"Staraptor, make yourself known!"

Paul doesn't bother saying one of those cheesy and childish lines and just simply throws his pokeball out. The pokemon flood the battlefield and observe each other in the split seconds before the first moves are called.

"Icebeam on torterra!"

"Earthquake." Paul says simply and piplup quickly takes action, by propelling itself into the air, but the flying staraptor has other plans in mind. The staraptor slams into piplup with it's beak. An earthquake of 7.2 rocks the battlefield and piplup falls to the ground not long after, damaged from the staraptor's drill peck.

"Piplup, are you okay?" Dawn yells, worried about the pokemon.

"Pi-Piplup!" Piplup yells, shaking off it's fatigue.

The Froslass shakes off the damage from the earthquake. Paul nods, eyes still on the battle. Dawn smiles, ready to take action.

"Piplup shake it off and use drill peck on staraptor!"

The blue pokemon runs towards the airborne bird pokemon.

"Froslass use icebeam!"

"Torterra, use magical leaf!" Paul yells.

The froslass' ice beam is annihilated and it takes damage from spare magical leaves that slashes it's skin.

"Staraptor! Meet that piplup's drill peck with brave bird!"

The staraptor glows blue as it flies to meet piplup. Piplup jumps up, above the height of Staraptor. Staraptor flies past in confusion and it's eyes widen in surprise when it sees Torterra waiting for it.

"Energy ball."

The energy ball flies into staraptor's face. The attack isn't effective but is strong enough to render the pokemon unconscious. Froslass looks alarmed as both torterra and piplup turn to face her. She sweatdrops when she sees the endless streams of bubbles and magical leaves heading her way. She is so shocked that she is frozen and any command her trainer yells is futile.

"And the double battle on battlefield 3 has come to an end, with Wolf and Ghost having won again. Are these two the dark horses of the double tournament?"

Dawn returns her pokemon and enters the waiting area, breathing a sign of relief.

Dawn wipes away the sweat on her clammy hands. Why is she still nervous? It's already the final round, she should be used to battling by now. But what makes it worse is that they will be against the squad 1 duo, who only had to defeat mediocre pairs to get to the final. Kasie is one of the two, the other one is unknown to Dawn. From what Kasie told her earlier, she thinks his name is Tracey or something like that. In the single tournament final is Rosa and Hugh, also a squad 1 member. She can hear Debonte marvelling at how the squad members will fight the boss no matter what. But for them, it is a battle against whether squad 1 or squad 0 is better. First up is Hugh and Rosa on battlefield 2.

"Can Mayhem and Onyx come to battlefield 2, the battle is about to begin."

* * *

The tournament's finals are held separately so all attention can be held on one match. Rosa tries to cheer herself up, but she knows she has a type advantage. But she knows Serperior lacks the power that Hugh's Samurott has.

"Samurott, showtime!"

"Serperior, please try your best!"

The two pokemon emerge from their pokemon balls and instantly lunge at each other.

"Frenzy plant!" Rosa calls, a second faster than Hugh.

"Hydro pump!"

"Dodge it!"

Serperior unleashes a load of plants that erupt from the ground. Samurott unleashes a weak spurt of water as it dodges, but serperior sidesteps it. The water type pokemon is hit by many slashes from the fierce plants that ravage the battlefield. The plants vanish, leaving a bruised but alive samurott, who is more fired up than ever.

"Annihilate your opponent, samurott!" Hugh calls, a serious look on his face.

Atleast he is taking the battle seriously, Rosa observes. And within the second before Hugh calls out an attack, a plan formulates in her mind. Good chess players think five moves ahead. Great chess players think one move ahead, but it's always the right move. Basically, it's similar to fluking it.

"Body slam!" Hugh calls.

Rosa puts her head down and smiles, causing Hugh to feel uneasy. Just what is she planning? He thought she is a simple, open book kind of girl. But maybe that isn't the case at all. The samurott rushes serperior. Rosa flashes a grin.

"Dodge to the left and leaf blade!"

Hugh and samurott instantly realise what is happening.

"Dodg-"

But it's too late. The one, high powered attack creates a cloud of dust. And when it clears, samurrot is unable to continue. Hugh smiles sadly and returns his pokemon, whispering his thanks. How did he get KO'd so easily? He turns to leave hastily before Rosa can talk to him, which she easily notices. He is obviously more upset about the loss than he is letting on. She knows that she isn't anything special at pokemon battles, but winning does make her heart beat just a little bit faster.

"Well done Mayhem!" Dawn yells, cheering on her colleague enthusiastically.

Rosa smiles and says,

"I don't think pokemon battles are for me, though. I prefer the normal missions."

Dawn nods understandingly. She loves the idea of battling or coordinating with pokemon, but she doesn't have the right ability in her genes to continue with it. She didn't inherit much of her mother's coordinating skill, which is more of a blessing than a curse.

* * *

"May Wolf and Ghost come to battlefield 3."

Dawn stands shakily and manages to move her frozen legs to the battlefield. There are hundreds of eyes on her and this makes her feel like she is going to mess up. Kasie and Tracey stare at them from across the field, determined to win. Kasie stares between Dawn and Paul, then winks at Dawn, causing her to blush in anger and embarrassment. She is shaking so much that she can't even hold her pokemon. She feels Paul's stable hand on her shoulder and can hear him tell her to calm down.

"The battle between Ghost and Wolf against Scythy and Fiassie. She takes a deep breath and throws her pokeball into the air with a flourish.

"Piplup, spotlight!"

"Torterra, go."

"Scyther!"

"Hitmonlee, get ready to fight!"

The four pokemon glare at their opponents, ready for battle. Torterra looks over at piplup and they both nod at the unspoken agreement.

"Scyther, fury cutter on torterra! It'll be super effective!" Tracey yells, excited at being in the finals.

"Hitmonlee, high kick."

Doesn't that move do damage if it misses? Dawn smiles, she has a plan after all.

"Go piplup!" Dawn yells.

Both torterra and piplup unleash their attacks at the same time. The whirlpool combines with the energy balls to form a torrent of flying water which unleashes energy balls into the battlefield at random intervals. The scyther and Hitmonlee halt and try to step forward. But they can't, otherwise they will be swept away by the whirlpool or hit by the frantic over-charged energy balls. Piplup stands in the centre of the whirlpool, unleashing an amazing amount of bubbles that add to the destructiveness of the colossal water structure. The scyther and hitmonlee are pulled in by the immense pull. Fortunately torterra is grounded and fires magical leaves into the whirlpool to aid piplup.

"Pip-lup!" Piplup yells, easily dodging the flying leaves, bubbles and energy balls with ease in one of it's favourite medium.

The scyther attacks with fury cutter, but piplup easily dodges it as the bug type pokemon is moving too slow in the unfamiliar medium of the liquid. Hitmonlee uses high kick and shudders in pain when it misses.

"Hitmonlee, close combat!"

"Piplup, hydro pump!"

Piplup reacts quicker and the water type move disrupts the rotation of the whirlpool, causing all the attacks to crash onto their opponents. Piplup does a backflip and has a cushioned fall onto some plants made by torterra. Hitmonlee and scyther crash into the ground, falling unconscious from the brutal attacks and the fall.

"Well done, Ghost!" Kasie calls, trying to avoid the tears in her eyes from falling down her cheeks.

Kasie has lost...she has lost against people who have never fought in pokemon battles until today. Her hitmonlee from her youth got thrashed, despite the selective training. The pokemon may be powerful because they have PBI contracts. But, they obviously didn't make those plans by themselves. Paul and Dawn most have thought of them before their matches. Impressive really. Kasie turns and pulls down her hat, a single tear flying from her tear-filled eyes, which sparkles under the bright lights. Squad 0 is as great as they say.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey guys. Sorry that I haven't updated earlier, but I haven't been feeling well and this chap** **ter took an age to write!**

* * *

Rosa is first against the leader and he gets the advantage to pick any of his six pokemon to battle her. Probably one that has an advantage over hers. She tries to act confident when she steps onto the battlefield. But, she can feel her heart beating faster.

"I can do this," she tells herself, staring up at the mass crowd sizing her up.

She doesn't have to win, but she has to at least damage the boss' ego in some way. She knows that serperior will go down quickly, so what should she do?

"Serperior, prepare for battle!"

"Haha, don't make me laugh! Ninetails, show them who's the boss!"

The two face each other as their pokemon take the battlefield. She has faced type advantages before, but this pokemon will be on a whole new level. Even on a higher level than Hugh, who is said to be a pokemon trainer prodigy. She grits her teeth at the Xernea's boss smirking at her in distaste. He thinks he will crush her...but she didn't get here for nothing. She has good prediction skills, but are they good enough to get atleast one hit in?

"I bet you can't hit me once!" The overly confident man grins, looking down at Rosa from his huge height.

Rosa can now see why Dawn might hate Paul sometimes, but they atleast have some things in common. The only things these two have in common is that they have both killed people. The wicked man for sport. Her for missions and her life. She may be the same as him in some way, but she is nothing like him. He is a narcissistic monster and he deserves to die for his sins and crimes.

"Everyone calls me Z, nice to meet you, Mayhem."

His voice is so annoying, just like his self-centered personality. Is he as great at battling as they say? Probably. Is it impossible to beat him? Not impossible, but close enough.

* * *

"Begin!"

"Ninetails, fire blitz!"

"Serperior, dodge it!"

Serperior eyes the fire warily and uses it's vines to launch it into the air. But the fire seems to follow him and a light flame scalds one of his vines. Serperior winces in pain as a burn ravages it's grass-like body.

"Damn. He's burned already," Rosa hisses to herself.

What is she going to do now? If he moves too much, the pain might get worse. She hopes the burn fades quickly.

"Ninetails, iron tail!"

The majestic fire type thunders towards Rosa's burned pokemon. Serperior watches the flaming pokemon, looking for any quirks or flaws in the charging pokemon. Rosa tries to think of a plan, then an idea emerges.

"Serperior, magical leaf!"

An torrent of leaves submerges the field, but ninetails' flaming aura burns the leaves before they get close. However, serperior has vanished in the greenness, using the leaves to camouflage itself.

"Frenzy plant, followed by aerial ace!"

"Ninetails! Behind you!"

The ninetails has no time to move as plants erupt around it, trapping it where it stands. The grass pokemon cuts through the undergrowth with aerial ace. The plants are cut and serperior aerial aces into ninetails' side. The fire pokemon yells and shoots fire in it's haste. The frenzy plants catch on fire and Rosa looks at serperior in horror. The grass pokemon releases the plants, but this leaves it open to attack. Nine iron tails hit it in the back and serperior begins to lose consciousness.

"Serperior get up!"

"Finish it off with flamethrower!

But Rosa's serperior rolls to the side and unleashes a precise leaf blade before collapsing. A mere second later, ninetails follows. The crowd roar at the Z's victory, much to Rosa's annoyance. Atleast one of his pokemon fainted, that should weaken him for the time being. When she steps off the battlefield, Serena pulls her to the van.

"We broke into his office and found information about a base. If we destroy that, then they will be weakened for longer. The grunts will use pokemon, so let me heal serperior."

* * *

The other double battles didn't have such a heavy atmosphere. Dawn tries to push off the sick feeling, but it seems to consume her. Resisting the urge to gag in nervousness, she pulls the pokeball from her pocket. She gently brings the pokeball to her face. All they had to do was distract the leader for as long as possible.

"Try your best!" She whispers to piplup quietly, before throwing out the pokeball onto the arena. "Spotlight!"

Paul just cringes at the unusual battle cry and sends torterra out without a word. Who needs fancy words when silence is much more normal?

Z laughs loudly before sending out a garchomp and a glaceon. Torterra warily eyes the glaceon, shivering at the coolness of the arena emitted from the ice type.

"Garchomp, dragon rush on our opponents."

Piplup manages to dodge the attack, but torterra is too slow. However, his defence is high enough to somewhat soften the blow. Piplup turns back around and meets glaceon's gaze. Dawn quickly notices the ice forming in the ice pokemon's mouth.

"Piplup, dodge!"

The water pokemon jumps into the air, narrowly missing the large beam of solid ice. When he began following her orders, piplup has forgotten. But he had not expected her to be such a perceptive trainer. Piplup quickly dives to the ground and lands a drill peck on glaceon's side before retreating.

"You running away?" Z drawls, a massive, arrogant smirk on his face.

Piplup turns back in anger, letting out a strangled cry and rushes toward glaceon.

"Piplup! Stop!" Dawn cries out, seeing that garchomp is eyeing the pokemon like prey.

"Frenzy plant."

Plants take over the stage, but both glaceon and garchomp dodge them easily. The plants move piplup next to the colossal grass pokemon, where piplup growls in anger. It huffs at the enemy, which start running toward them in unison. Piplup sweatdrops, but stands his ground.

"Garchomp, dragon breath! Glaceon, ice beam!"

The dragon breath and ice beam combine into a destructible beam and Dawn's eyes widen in fear.

"P-piplup...use hydro pump," Dawn whispers quickly, not wanting to watch piplup faint.

She doesn't want to let anyone else down. Piplup manages to hear his trainer's voice. For some reason, he feels the need to impress her and beat the odds. Piplup huffs and releases an abnormally strong hydro pump, which is joined by a mass of energy balls, from torterra, that are pulled in around the water. The beams collide and seem to be evenly matched. The pokemon refuse to give up and can feel their throats' burning from the prolonged move usage. The water pokemon knows that he will run out of water soon and could feel sweat pouring down his face. Despite the force of the beam, he manages to step forward in unison with torterra, causing the beam to move closer to their opponents.

The electricity and sparks from the powerful collisions are heavy in the air and the pokemon are finding it hard to breathe. Another painful step and the beam collides into their opponents, who have ran out of energy. Piplup falls onto one knee as dust and smoke clouds the battlefield, staying alert incase there is a sudden attack. But the smoke clears and glaceon and garchomp lay unconscious. They would have survived if their moves hadn't hit them as well. The crowd is too stunned to cheer and Z just watches them with wide eyes. Dawn quickly returns piplup. Paul safely returns torterra and pulls Dawn towards the exit, not wanting anymore attention. No one must know who they really are. Dawn ignores the pain from Paul gripping her wrist too hard. They push through the crowd quickly, wanting to lose the security as quickly as possible. They leave the building without anyone following them and manage to round the corner before the police arrive from a tip off.

"Dawn, we need to go," Paul says desperately, but Dawn doesn't want to leave the others behind.

* * *

Paul has to drag her to the van, where they wait in silence. What would happen if they got caught by the police? What would happen if the gang caught them? Dawn starts to freak out, brushing her hair with her fingers to try calm herself down. Paul just sighs and turns on the radio, letting soft classical music fill the van and get rid of the deafening silence. It feels like ages, but her teammates return, covered in bruises but alive. Somehow the eleven of them fit in the van. The drive to drop off squad 1 is loud, as they discuss what has happened. Serena has been hurt by one of the captains of the Xernea gang, the one that she had lost to in the single tournament. They had managed to destroy the base and have completed the mission to weaken the gang.

Two of the captains have been killed, one of them is injured and one of them has fled. The one that hurt Serena has fled, to their anger. Dawn feels restless and angry from the influenced atmosphere and emotions of the others. She could see all their emotions as clear as day. She doesn't mention that Serena personally knows who attacked her, but if she did, Serena would never hear the end of it from her teammates. She knows that Paul has read that off Serena's face too, but they mutually agree not to mention anything. Piplup cries when he is taken away from Dawn, which surprises everyone, even himself. He is always proud and unwilling in embarrass himself, but for some reason, he feels like he is bonded to Dawn. Dawn couldn't help but cry too, earning an arrogant smirk from Paul. He isn't going to let her forget this.

* * *

Dawn grabs her bag, packing her books, an extra outfit and her swimming kit (which is the bikini she borrowed from May). The boys have a football match afterschool and Dawn will have to stay on school grounds because Gary doesn't want her to walk home by herself and come back later. She argues that Misty could drive her, but Gary ignores the fact as if it is insignificant. She loves her cousin, but he just doesn't understand her sometimes. She sighs as Misty gives her a lift to school, staring at the icy trees out of the car's window. It is getting colder as winter approaches, Dawn notices. But outside seems too cold for September. It should still be fairly warm and the leaves should still be a lovely green. Instead, the leaves are dotted with reds, browns and yellows. The air smells like bonfires, instead of the sweet scent of summer. It feels depressing that even though her mother passed away, the world still continues as if nothing has happened. Dawn rushes out of Misty's car, causing the red haired girl to watch her leave with worry and concern.

"Dawn?" She calls after her, but Dawn just keeps walking in silence towards the school building.

* * *

"Dawn, come here. Now!" Miss. Potter barks, holding a sheet of paper in her claw-like hands.

Dawn sighs and walks quickly to the desk, ignoring the hollow feeling in her chest. The battle and events last night have left her empty and careless. She didn't care for anything.

"You're dropped one mark on the test," Miss. Potter eyes her, actually displaying genuine concern.

The test Dawn had done twenty minutes ago has already left her mind and she couldn't remember a single question. Why couldn't she remember? Why doesn't she care at all?

"I did? Which question?" Dawn mumbles, not caring about the dropped mark at all.

"On question 2, you didn't put the units. Are you feeling well?"

Should Dawn lie and say she is alright when she isn't? It wouldn't make a difference either way.

"No. I d-don't feel right."

"Marina, you're in charge of the class until I get back. Come on Dawn, let's get you to the nurse's office."

The concern in her voice couldn't be faked, so Dawn let Miss. Potter guide her to the nurse. The walk is quiet and she could feel questioning eyes on the back of her head. This teacher who was horrible and underestimated her, actually cares for her wellbeing. They approach the stairs and suddenly Dawn feels nauseous and light-headed. She slips on the first step and falls forward. Miss. Potter reaches out her hand, but Dawn's hand slips out of hers. She lands into someone, causing them both to go land with a big thud.

"What the hell, Ghost?"

"Paul?"

Miss. Potter hurries down the steps and sees Dawn on the floor, safe. Why Paul was out of lessons, Dawn doesn't know, but she's glad that he was there to break her fall.

"Try not to give me a heart attack, Dawn. Paul, would you take Dawn to the nurse for me? I know that you don't have an excuse to be out of history."

Paul grumbles, but he drags Dawn in the direction of the nurse's office hastily. Miss. Potter stares after them. She wouldn't have told Mr. Jackson that Paul is skiving his history lesson and Paul knows that.

"I never understand that boy," she whispers to herself, before heading back to her classroom.

* * *

"Paul! You're hurting my wrist!" Dawn yelps.

Paul loosens his grip slightly, but still pulls her along at the same pace as before.

"Why do you need to go to the infirmary, Ghost?" Paul asks, his voice void of emotion.

"I don't feel well," Dawn answers simply.

"You don't feel well?"

"I feel like I am on anti-depressant pills," Dawn sighs, feeling her wrist become numb from Paul's vice-like grip. "My wrist still hurts. Wait...why are you dragging me?"

Paul sighs and lets go of her wrist, grabbing her hand instead and continuing to pull her. His hand is warm and soft, not cool like she thought it would be. Dawn's heart thuds and she can feel her face heating up.

"W-what are you doing?" Dawn yells quietly, not wanting to disturb lessons going on in the rooms around them.

Paul keeps his face forward and calls back to her,

"You're walking too slow and I don't want you to faint. You've caused me enough trouble as it is."

"I'm sorry if I am such a nuisance!" Dawn huffs, not sorry at all.

The walk to the nurse's office seems longer than normal and Dawn just wants it to end soon. Why is Paul always such a jerk?

* * *

Dawn grits her teeth in annoyance. Firstly, why is the nurse not in the infirmary? Secondly, why is Paul waiting with her? She sighs in defeat as she lays on one of the bed, facing away from the purple-haired annoyance.

"You don't have to act like I don't exist," Paul smirks, trying not to sound like he is bothered.

"I'm not."

"You are."

"Fine. I'm ignoring you. Happy?"

"Then why are you talking to me?"

"Shut up, Paul," Dawn sighs half-heartedly, snuggling into the warmth of the white bed.

Her headache is clearing now and her emotions are returning. In no time at all, she has fallen into a deep slumber. Paul watches as Dawn's tense shoulder and back muscles relax as she is lulled to sleep. He can imagine her worried, angry expression being washed away as sleep takes her. She's always so guarded. After hearing about her childhood from when she exploded on Barry, it's no wonder she doesn't trust people. She must have so much more to her story than what she has told people, if she had. All Paul knows is that Dawn's mother is dead, her father was abusive to her mother and is now in an asylum and she suffers from perfectionism. People shouldn't have to live with things like that. No-one should. But it happens and there is nothing they can do about it. People who can do something about it, don't. And that is why people have to endure these terrors, monsters and their fears.

* * *

The bell sounds loudly through the nurse's office and Dawn yawns and stretches, sitting up. From the clock in the corner of the room, she gathers that it is lunchtime.

"Are you okay, dear?" The nurse asks. "Paul said that you would be awake soon. He's such a good boy, looking after you until I got back. It's a shame that not everyone sees him in a good light."

"E-erm...I-I'm fine. I just felt a bit ill and numb. I feel a lot better now."

That is the truth, Dawn feels better. She doesn't feel numb and uncaring like before, but she doesn't feel as right as rain either. She manages to sit up, just as Miss. Potter walks in with her bags.

"Oh, Dawn, you're awake. I hope your feeling better. I gave the class homework, but you're ahead and I think you could do with a break. Though that isn't an excuse to lose a mark on the next test," Miss. Potter says sternly, but with a friendly smile.

Maybe Dawn isn't as good at reading people as she thought she is. Dawn thanks the nurse and teacher, before grabbing her bag and leaving for the sakura tree as quickly as possible. She sees Misty and Ash on the way, who seem to be heading for the car park. They must be going out for lunch, Dawn notices.

"Dawn, you weren't in engineering! What happened?" Misty asks, a worried hint colouring her voice.

"I was in the nurse's office. I'm fine now. I just needed rest, that's all. No need to worry!"

Misty and Ash try to hide their concerned looks and after a lot of convincing, they leave Dawn to go get some lunch. Dawn sighs in relief. She quickly gets to the tree, shivering at the cold. Soon it will be too cold to eat out here and they'd have to eat in the cafeteria, which would be obnoxiously loud and crowded. Dawn situates herself next to May and Leaf. They engage in small talk, which satisfies the other girls' needs to talk. Dawn herself isn't in a talkative mood, but she can't bring herself to push her friend's away. Gary watches her from the corner of his eye, something that doesn't go unnoticed by Dawn. He should get the award for the most worried cousin, Dawns laughs to herself.

* * *

She excuses herself after she has eaten and wanders the school grounds. She ends up by a small pokemon monument and pond, filled with fish. The monument appears to be of a legendary pokemon called Mew. The area looks abandoned, as if no one visits this area anymore. Dawn sits down on the bench, staring up at the pale blue sky. She shivers from the icy wind and wishes she had brought a coat today. Just as that thought passes through her mind, a jacket is placed hastily over her shoulders. The soothing scent of chocolate and forests fill her nose.

"Paul?"

There is no response, but Paul sits next to her quickly, close enough to offer her some shelter from the frosty wind.

"Paul? What time is it?"

"Ten minutes until the first bell," he responds quickly, not having to check his watch.

Dawn feels warmer due to the jacket, the shelter against the wind and the soft blush covering her cheeks. If Paul notices, he would probably suspect it is because she is cold, which is partly true. Dawn wants to ask another question, so she turns. She hadn't expected Paul to be so close. Her voice catches in her throat for a second, but she manages to form sentences in her now blank mind.

"Er...should we head to class?" Dawn whispers, avoiding the boy's eyes.

"Not yet," he replied simply.

Why doesn't she go by herself? She questions this, but she can't find an answer. Is she too scared or nervous to go back on her own? But, why would that be the case? As a child, she had to go everywhere by herself. Every competition, every visit to the store, every award ceremony. Has she grown soft since living in Pallet? The seconds tick by and they sit, in deafening silence.

"Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you watching the game tonight?"

"Yeah. Gary isn't letting me leave, which isn't fair because track isn't on today!" Dawn complains and Paul laughs quietly at how dramatic she is being.

Paul doesn't laugh much, which makes it surprising when he does. Not the sarcastic, arrogant laugh. The real, emotion-filled laugh. Dawn stands up, ready to head back to class before the bell goes.

"Wait! You have my jacket!" Paul yelled, standing up to.

Dawn quickly halts, shaking off the jacket and handing it back to Paul quickly, before taking a few more steps.

"Wait, Dawn!"

Dawn turns around, irritated.

"What is it?"

"Er...nothing."

With that, Dawn hurries to the school building, hearing the bell resonate through the building and the grounds. Paul just stands there, watching her go. He puts on the warm, black jacket, noticing that it smells like her now. Jade would give him a fair word about being late, but she wouldn't care. He always aces his tests and that gains him mutual respect from his teachers. They worry about him too much for his liking. He watches, angry at himself, as Dawn fades from view. Why does he never say what is on his mind? He is such an idiot.


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry. I've been suffering really bad with writer's block and I have had to revise for my gcse exams non-stop. Also, the person I beta read for hasn't contacted me in a month, published two chapters since then and is asking for beta readers. So, I am feeling a bit hurt at the moment. But no need to worry! There's a lack of Ikarishipping this week, but have some Sakugoshipping instead! Thank you, Julie Togepi, for the reminder to finish writing this chapter!**

* * *

The library is quiet and Dawn watches the clock tick by in anticipation. She is still in her uniform and will get changed soon, where she will walk to the stadium, on the other side of the prestigious school's grounds. She taps her fingers against the desk impatiently, as if willing time to go faster. The game starts at 5 and she sighs with relief when it becomes 4:30 pm. She puts away the book she had tried to read and heads towards the bathrooms, where she changes into her outfit. Black jeans, a pretty, warm, white jumper and a black leather coat. Dawn leaves her hair down, for extra warmth, and heads towards the stadium, seeing loads of people arriving onto school grounds. She flashes her student ID card, which she received before her first day of school. The teacher nods, allowing her into the stadium. The only people allowed in the stadium were students, their family and any close friends. These friends and family have to apply for ID cards, which were given if they met the standards. A prestigious school couldn't allow potential dangers on the school grounds, despite the student's complaints. Dawn easily spots Misty, Drew, May and Leaf. Everyone on this side of the stadium is wearing blue and white, supporting their team's colours. The other side is coated in red and black. Dawn looks at her clothes, which are pathetic in comparison. She has only matched the white. May smiles and hands her a blue scarf with the school logo, which Dawn wraps around her neck. Then Dawn slips on white gloves that Misty hands her. She can't help but smile. She loves her friends because they help her with all the little things she'd never think of by herself. The teams enter the stadium not long after Dawn and the cheers erupt from every orifice of the crowd.

"YEAH!"

The crowd roars and Dawn stares at both teams. She easily spots Paul, due to his unusual hair colour. Gary and Ash are harder to spot, but her eagle eyes find them. They look nervous, Dawn waves at them and they wave back, well, all except Paul, who isn't paying her any attention. He appears to be deep in thought, Dawn notices.

The football (soccer) game begins and the ball is kicked. She has never been told that Pallet academy's football team is the best high school football team in the region, so when they score the first point easily, she just stares in amazement. Stunned into silence, that even May can not get a response from her. Gary plays midfield and appears to be in charge of everyone else, which isn't surprising really. Ash is goalkeeper, which is his best role in football, and Paul is a striker, which Dawn doesn't believe at first. He appears to be a more defensive player, but then she realises why he stands out as a striker. His feints are unbeatable because he can make his face void of emotion and expression. And he is fast, probably just faster than her, which is saying something. Ash does a spectacular dive and sends the ball back up the pitch.

"Well done, Ash!" Misty screams at the top of her lungs and Ash turns and grins, having heard her.

"Pallet! Pallet!" The cheers thunder into Dawn's ears and just fuel her excitement. She'd never gone to a football match before because she didn't have time. In her first year of high school, she still had lots of activities. But, now she has plenty of time. The first half ends quickly and the second begins just as fast.

* * *

They are winning 7-0 and Dawn can't help but feel sorry for the other team, who are getting thrashed. There is one minute left on the clock and for some reason, Pallet academy is focused on scoring another goal. She can hear Ursula, Rebecca and Brianna yelling in the background, angry at losing three good guys, but still supporting their team in case one of them gets a chance to prey on the men. They are just like venus fly traps. Selfish and hollow. Though she is hollow and broken, so is she any better? Paul chips in a shot, scoring a goal just as the whistle blows. Everyone rushes onto the field and the authorities let them, knowing it would be a losing battle. Dawn matches her pace with the others and they reach Gary and Ash easily enough. Paul is surrounded by news reporters and girls because he has scored the last goal. For some reason, Dawn can feel her blood boiling as it courses through her veins. But she ignores it. She's supposed to be annoyed at him.

"Ash!" Misty yells, hugging Ash tightly despite his complaints.

This just earns him laughs and squeals from the massive crowd around them. Dawn decides to get some more space, so she starts walking towards a less populated area of the field, wanting fresh air. She feels crowded within this many people. May tries to grab her arm, but misses. This allows her to keep walking. To where, she has no clue. But she has a feeling that she just wants to get as far away as possible. Only May notices her go, watching with sad eyes at her retreating friend.

* * *

Dawn sits by the cars, lost in her train of thought. She can hear the loud and negligible chattering of other students leaving the large stadium. The wind softly cradles her cheek, comforting her as she sits, alone.

"What are you doing in my truck, Ghost?"

"Drive me home. Please. The others haven't left the stadium yet!" Dawn complains to Paul, biting her tongue despite the pain.

She is supposed to be angry at him, but she can't bring herself to be angry when he is standing infront of her. He always wastes her time, yet when he is looking at her, all her anger melts away.

"Fine."

Paul gets into his truck, throwing his bag full of his football things on Dawn's lap before starting the engine.

"Hey! I don't need to carry all your stuff!"

"It's payment for taking you home. You could have got Misty to take you home, you know?"

"But, she, Ash, Drew and May are going out for food and Gary and Leaf are going god knows where." Dawn frowns sadly.

The rest of the journey is silent, both of them staring intently at the road. Dawn wants to break the deafening silence, but she can't think of anything to say. They reach the house quickly and they walk into the house, where Paul walks off in silence. Are silences supposed to be this awkward? Why is this jerk being so mean to her? Sighing in anger, she storms to her bedroom, doing her homework and working on the engineering project. All the while, she couldn't help but scream at Paul in her head. The problem isn't that he is an annoying, insensitive jerk, which he is. But that he just wastes her time or ignores her.

* * *

It is late when Dawn re-emerges from her room and decides to go for a walk for some fresh air. She steps out into the dusk sky. Several stars could be seen through the beautiful haze. The dying sun is fading over the horizon as the moon peeks around the mountain opposite. It is a shame they'd never meet. Two beautiful objects destined to orbit the galaxy separately. Where she is going, she has no idea. But, the thought of fresh air greatly appeals to her. Inside the house is stifling, making it difficult to breathe. Even when the others had returned, the tenseness hadn't ceased, but only worsened. Her coat only just manages to keep her warm, pushing back the night as far as it can.

"Dawn? What are you doing out here?"

Barry? Dawn turns around quickly and sees the jock. He has changed in the few days after Dawn had given him a piece of her mind. There are no more accusations of assaults and bullying from his usual victims. He'd also helped one of them, causing the entire cafeteria to go into remote silence.

"Hey Barry. I'm...going for a walk, I guess." Dawn replies half-heartedly, noticing the jock is still bouncing with energy like usual.

She wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't drunk an entire gallon of coffee like his enthusiasm implies.

"If you have nothing to do. How about you join me? I'm going to a local coffee shop to meet...a friend."

His usual cheerfulness turns to deep thought at the last phrase, but Dawn is too distracted to notice. Not noticing things really shows how imperfect her life is at the moment.

"Yeah. Sure."

* * *

They arrive at the local coffee shop within five minutes, Dawn having had to match her pace to Barry's ridiculously fast one. He bounds through the door, bumping into someone just leaving.

"Ow...oh, Barry. I thought you weren't coming."

"Oh, sorry Kenny. I didn't mean to run into you...again."

"Kenny?" Dawn yells, seeing her best friend from Twinleaf town. "What are you doing here?"

"Dawn? Is that you? We haven't talked since...Erm...I decided to come visit Barry, but I didn't know you lived in the area." Kenny smiles sheepishly, honestly not knowing where in the neighbourhood Dawn has moved.

She hasn't talked to him since the car accident. He had tried ringing several times, but Dawn had deflected all his calls and ignored all his texts. At the time, she hadn't realised how much it had hurt her brother-like best friend. And when she realised, she didn't have the guts to call back. How could Kenny not text her telling her about his flight to Kanto? He texts her everyday and she always read them, but she never replies back. He hadn't texted her in the last three days, making her wonder if he was texting someone more important than her. She is an awful friend, she doesn't deserve a friend like Kenny.

"Let's sit down, standing around looking at each other gormlessly won't do anything," Barry laughs nervously, sitting at a table for four.

Kenny hesitantly sits nexts to Barry, opposite to Dawn.

"What drinks do you want? I'll pay for them. After all, the flight must have been expensive and I doubt Dawn has a purse in a coat without pockets."

"Yeah...I forgot it. Can I have a hot chocolate? Thanks Barry," Dawn smiles, gratefully for Barry's observation.

"A cappuccino please, thanks," Kenny grins, shivering at the warmth of the shop compared to the doorway they were at a minute earlier.

Barry literally skips in the direction of the counter, his voice loud enough to be heard from the corner of the shop that they are situated in.

"How do you know Barry?"

"He ran into me...literally. It wasn't long before you left for Kanto. I was shopping in Jubilife and he floored me when I was coming out of a store," Kenny laughs quietly, obviously replaying the moment in his head again. "He was shopping for some limited-edition item that was only sold in Sinnoh."

She hasn't known Barry long, but that sounds similar to something he would do. Though the chances of him running into Kenny were slim, which makes this meeting very unlikely. But here she is, sat opposite the person she had known for a large portion of her life.

"Back," Barry yells happily, interrupting her and Kenny's catch up. He places the hot chocolate, cappuccino and coffee on the table, before throwing himself onto the chair with so much force that he slams into Kenny by accident.

"Sorry...again!"

"If you say sorry one more time!"

Dawn and Barry laugh at Kenny's try at being serious, but he fails so miserably it becomes increasingly funny.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me!" Kenny yells jokingly, sipping his cappuccino, only to choke from the hot beverage.

It takes several minutes for Dawn and Barry to stop being hysterical and a normal conversation ensues. Dawn then remembers what she has been meaning to say since her outburst.

"Oh. Barry, I'm sorry for exploding last week. You didn-"

"I deserved that. It made me realise what a horrible person I was being."

"You're not horr-"

"Not to you!" Barry yells, trying to stop Kenny from speaking.

Dawn couldn't help but notice the pink tinge on Barry's cheeks. That's when it hits her.

"Barry, do you like Kenny?" Dawn bursts out, causing all the other customers to turn and stare at the trio in confusion.

The innocent pink tinge before envelopes into a full crimson blush that covers Barry's cheeks. Even Kenny has gone scarlet. Then she shrieks again,

"Wait...You're dating?"

She knows she is right when the crimson goes darker, if that is possible. She squeals from the adorableness and quickly takes a picture of their blushing faces, much to their distaste.

"I'm offended you didn't tell me, Kenny," Dawn jokes, sticking her tongue out childishly at Kenny. "I wondered who you were texting instead of me."

"You were reading me texts?"

"Erm..."

Thankfully Barry changes the subject, but Dawn quickly brings it back to the pairing of her best friend and the jock. She is thrilled that both of them are happy, but she is still a bit shocked. Maybe, shouting at Barry has benefited his and Kenny's relationship in a way. She couldn't help but grin throughout the entire time they are in the coffee shop. It makes her forget all her troubles. About needing to be perfect. About the PBI. About Paul's behaviour.

"When am I becoming your sister-in-law, Barry?" Dawn teases, knowing that she isn't related to Kenny, now matter what strangers on the street had thought.

"Dawn!" Barry sighs, another blush developing. "Anyway, I texted Gary for you. Someone is coming to pick you up. Gary says they should be here very soon."

"Who?"

* * *

But Barry doesn't have enough time to reply.

"Come on Ghost, I don't have all day."

"Paul!" Dawn gasps, turning around. Why is he picking her up? Couldn't she walk home by herself? That's when she notices just how dark it is outside. "Erm...bye Kenny. See you at school, Barry."

Dawn waves at her friends and begrudgingly follows Paul into the freezing air outside of the warm, steaming shop.

"Why are you taking me home? Couldn't Gary have come?"

"I was already in the area. Trust me, I wouldn't if I had a choice. It was pick up you or lose my truck for a week. Knowing Gary, he would definitely 'lose' my keys." Paul sighs in frustration.

But Dawn can tell something isn't right. The sigh isn't the same. It sounds like he is trying to make it sound like he is frustrated. Like he is forcing the negative emotion. Dawn realises that he really doesn't mind taking her home, which comes as a surprise. So surprising that she stops walking to Paul's truck.

"What is it Ghost?"

"You d-don't mind picking me up." Dawn states, still stunned.

Paul scrowls and continues walking through the icy night. Why does he act like he doesn't care? What the hell is wrong with his personality recently? He isn't acting as much as a jerk as he use to. Has she done something wrong? Normally if someone started acting more civil towards her, she would think nothing of it. But with Paul, it made her shocked. Why would he want to be civil to her? She got the impression that he thinks she is troublesome, idiotic and a nuisance that gets in his way. Managing to place one foot in front of the other, she manages to reach the vehicle safely. She stares up at the star filled sky as the truck thunders along the icy road. It had never been icy in September in Sinnoh. She opens her mouth to warn Paul when she hears it. The frantic squeak of tires on the icy ground. She turns her head to see a huge, overburdened lorry skidding across the ground towards them. She tries to move, but all she can see are the memories of the car accident that killed her mother. It was the airbag, but it could have easily been the impact aswell.

"Paul!" Dawn yells, despite the fact that Paul has already seen the lorry. He manages to turn his truck, but he doesn't move fast enough. The end of his truck is clipped by the massive vehicle skidding into them. She could hear the fearful scream of the driver as he pressed his foot hard on the brake, a futile attempt. Paul's truck receives a full on collision, causing them to be somersaulted several metres before they crash into the wall of a local building with a massive kaboom. How had her PBI training not help her? She had froze. It is much easier to act in theory. That's when the immense pain hits and Dawn's vision goes black.


End file.
